June 5, 2020

A great new project has been developed in partnership with Age UK Carlisle & Eden, Age UK West Cumbria, Alzheimer’s Society, Carlisle Carers, Cumbria CVS, Eden Carers, Northern Fells Group, People First, Stroke Association, West Cumbria Carers. This service has been developed as part of our local NHS response to Covid-19 and in partnership with NCIC NHS Trust.

We are offering Health & Welfare Telephone Support – safeguarding and supporting patients on discharge from hospital or when community health services consider that the patient may benefit from this service.

This is a service to hospital discharge teams, Community Hospital Discharge Teams and to all staff teams based at each of the 8 Integrated Care Community Hubs in North Cumbria. This new service will help staff to support complex and/or vulnerable patients.

Through a series of 5 telephone calls the service will:

• Identify and Address health and social concerns
• Link patients to ongoing community support
• Support them to navigate health and social care services
• Keep clinical staff updated about issues and outcomes

Health & Wellbeing Telephone Support is different to many of the befriending and “check and chat” type services currently being offered by local community groups.  It is not just a social/support call but a structured mechanism to help people who require professional support from experienced organisations embedded in their local communities who have a good knowledge of health and care services in their locality.

This is a fine example of how the thrd sector and statutory services have come together to work in partnership for the benefit of all communities within the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust area.