Health and wellbeing in Easingwold and the local area Your views about what is important The views we collected from our conversations with you on the 10 June 2015 were rich personal experiences of local health and care services. We collated more than 300 written comments from the notes you provided at each table. We also captured what your priorities were too. The following is a summary of the key themes raised in discussions at the event. Verbatim comments were collated and are provided in appendix 1. Key themes Carers (employed) Education and information Headline views Respite care is inadequate There is a lack of residential provision There is no overnight service which is why people end up having to go into hospital People are not able to stay at home if they don t have domiciliary care. This is because of the cost and getting carers. The travel time for social care workers is unpaid for. They don t want to travel for one hour to Ampleforth and get paid for 15 minutes of work Training issues and low salary levels of carers are a problem Voluntary care and transport scheme is needed There are a lot of services. We need information about what is available, we aren t always sure. Complexity of service providers the community doesn t understand where services are coming from and who provides them how do we improve information / communication and keep this up to date? GPs can t signpost to correct services, they are not always aware Prevention i.e. obesity, diabetes and managing good health. Make available exercise classes, social events. What stops people being healthy? Publicise which services are available and when. Self-care education needs funding to help change 1
Integration Local environment Mental health support culture and behaviour. As criteria for services rises, need to do more on prevention. Care hub, both medical and general care. Access to care depends on where you live There is a fragmentation of local services and this is a backward step Joined up services and health and care records The barriers between health and social care need to e broken down Identify needs then co-ordinate the resources. Professionals and volunteers could work together to tackle isolation e.g. community shops, hubs. The community has a responsibility for vulnerable people. Empower the community to lead organisations such as Healthwatch, the CCG, York Hospital Trust, the council etc. Make the town more accessible to all people e.g. wheelchairs and people who struggle with walking? An increasing number of residents means an increase in demand on all services. Small community but organisations line up very well and identify where patients need help and get it from. Local framework plan is an opportunity for residents to influence things Neighbourhood spirit is important to drive change and doesn t exist in the main. Retired does not mean incapable! There is a locally acknowledged community in Easingwold but it is served by different agencies that make standardisation and co-ordination difficult and not joined up Wellbeing is linked to what exists in a community (travel, facilities, safety, surroundings etc.) What is the Easingwold community? Easingwold and District, Tollerton, Huby, a 6 mile radius 1 in 4 of us will have a mental health issue at some point in our lives. If not me, you, perhaps a relative or a friend? 2
Specific service gaps / need (excluding MH) Staffing St Monica s Gaps in provision: for mental health patient leaving hospital (who lives in Easingwold) the support in the community when the person leaves hospital is totally inadequate. More local support is required (with easy local contact number). Otherwise, the good done in hospital could be wasted / undone. Local access to mental health services with easy point of access for local service users. Care for working age adults Access to home from hospital schemes Can a facility in Easingwold provide services that would ease the pressures on the hospital but on the GP surgeries too? Community care services are needed Day care facilities for specialisms mental health, dementia. End of Life and palliative at St Monica s and at home like the Hospice at home project A return of the minor injuries unit would be good. It would reduce patients in A&E at York Hospital. We want outpatient services e.g. physiotherapy and occupational health and other therapies Support for working age adults can be limited but it is important Transport diagnostic services around the community Efficiencies around consortium GPs grouping Community nursing service, end of life care, health promotion, overnight services (carers, non-cancer patients) with close links to St Monica s Continuity of care is important More generic health and social care roles Generic workers i.e. social worker trained to take blood pressure Personal contact with GPs is important to keep Preventative healthcare therapists can play a big role Strong need for care home adequately resourced / trained staff There is value in having local GPs in local villages. What is the cost of St Monica s for what it provides? 3
Use of existing resources Could St Monica s be a one-stop shop for primary and social care, minor injuries and an advice service? Make the most of what we already have: the library, health centre, St Monica s, Tarpit Lodge, the renal unit, etc. Once a patient is in St Monica s it is hard to discharge them as delays in home care / access to therapies etc. Physio and rehab support can St Monica s provide more? St Monica s hospital important to community Palliative care, assessment, day care St Monica s - more therapy input needed in hospital so it can provide better rehabilitation to patients. E.g. physiotherapy and occupational therapy team only work 12 hours each per week Use St Monica s to offer increased day social care. It would address the loneliness issue. Accessibility of GPs (when working). 7 day service, How does this affect Easingwold? Better use of GP practice facilities Chemist provision could be better e.g. quicker to go to Thirsk I ve mentioned this before but nothing happened. Day centre services are a disaster change in eligibility criteria and charging policy it has become a bridge club. Library could be a place to have a community hub community care wants to talk to them about it. Local resource for being proactive in helping community Need more creative thinking underused health centre (district nurses / blood tests) could this be used more? Preventative services essential if all services are going to cope. Only people aged 70-ish in Easingwold receiving social care The criteria for social care is too high Second doctors surgery needed - or a bigger one Space available health centre, supermarket (blood tests) Super- hub medical facility integrating health and 4
Voluntary sector Other comments social care Less serious cases are not getting support from district nurses Good local volunteering / charitable activity however, this can be un-coordinated and may benefit from direction that is based upon local priorities There is a strong voluntary sector but the staff are getting older and same people doing it. Need young people. Linking carers together New build will increase over 65 s newly retired, an opportunity for volunteering. Relevant training for voluntary services Unmet need only 70 people accessing social care. Volunteers are not specialists, cannot fill the space of more specialist help needed. Volunteers making Easingwold tick, but it is hard to find people to do this. We need more opportunities for young people to do volunteering. Age gap is a factor Young, old, working age adult There is a fragmentation of services I haven t got much money but I am very rich! (help and support given to me when I need it) Wellbeing is the primary issue! I would say wellbeing and health Is health and well-being high on a young persons agenda? There are loneliness issues in the local area North Yorkshire public health priorities weight, road traffic accidents, smoking in pregnancy. What does wellbeing mean? It is peace of mind Loneliness (regardless of age) Feeling of self-worth People should be able to contribute to a whole community perspective Death, not just about the elderly. Contributing to my community and it being there to support me with experience / education / information / advice makes me feel good 5
Tell us one priority At the end of the discussion we asked each group to identify one key issue or subject they collectively agreed needed to be a priority for the local community. This is what you said. Create an environment that breaks down barriers and allows real and practical inter agency support. Improved use of St Monica s hospital: Improved rehab for patients physio and OT input. Quicker access to social services packages of care. Make best use of the resources that we currently have to help people build on their strengths and be as independent as possible. Build on Strengths Better co-ordination of existing service statutory, voluntary, carer. Cohesive service that communicates. Sharing skills, knowledge and services. Appropriately resourced. Living at home, excellent GP Timely appropriate access to all services. Affordable services / support at all levels of need to prevent or delay hospital admission / dependency on Crisis help. Use voluntary organisations to support preventative work to free up statutory services to deal with the most vulnerable. Making the most of what s already there; Assessment of, Signposting to, Added value of, Investment in, Access to etc. Which may lead to better use of St Monica s beds. Maximising use of voluntary sector. Access to doctors and wider range of services. 6
What happens next? As partners, we recognise the need to join up existing services and to build on the strengths of what is currently available. Following on from our event, North Yorkshire County Council, Healthwatch North Yorkshire, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Vale of York CCG have made several promises and commitments to the people of Easingwold and its surrounding communities. These are: Our commitments to continue the discussion the event on the 10 June was the first of a range of conversations with local people; to involve the wider community and groups in helping to make decisions about next steps. Our promises to share the messages and themes from this event as widely as possible; share information freely and widely across the community and with groups that deliver services and support; to work with Easingwold Town Council and link this work to neighbourhood plans; to update the community using you said, we did approaches to make sure that people are kept informed with how the partners are responding to what they heard at the event; to provide ways for other members of the community to contribute to this work. 7