Growth and development.pdf

2. Performance: Community CareBalance of care (aged 65+)Older people in residential care homes 159 31 1 164 32 1Older people in private nursing homes 62 12 4 62 12 4Older people receiving home care 796 154 1 735 143 1Older people in special needs housing 220 42.6 4 211 41.1 4People receiving a communitycare service1999actual1999-2000actual1999per 1,0001999-2000per 1,000QuartileQuartile2000actual2000-2001actual2000per 1,0002000-2001per 1,000QuartileQuartileOlder people (aged 65+) 1,001 194.9 3 1,036 200.8 3For mental health problems/dementia 38 2.4 3 34 2.1 4(aged 18-64)For physical disabilities (aged 18-64) 36 2.2 4 29 1.8 4For learning disabilities (aged 18-64) 48 3 3 51 3.2 3For drug/alcohol abuse problems 19 1.2 2 20 1.2 2(aged 18-64)The Council has a higher rate of older people in residential care homes than most otherauthorities but a lower rate of older people in nursing homes. There are plans to increase thenumber of single status beds to address the deficit in nursing home places, as part of aprogramme of replacement or refurbishment of residential homes. The Comhairle has aneffective Care & Repair scheme which, together with OT provision, ensures older people do notneed to enter residential care because their homes are not in a suitable condition. The numberof people in special needs housing is low.A high rate of older people receive a home care service, but the service received is more likelyto be of a shorter duration than in the other island authorities and is focused on morning hours.The Comhairle has embarked on a programme of introducing contracts for home care workers,with guaranteed working hours, based on a flexible system of employment through annualisedhours. This is to address the fact that recruitment and retention has been hampered seriouslyby the insecurity of employment, despite many other aspects of care work proving to be veryattractive to employees. The Comhairle is using their success within recruitment, retention andtraining in its residential care settings as a template for home care developments.In partnership with the NHS Board, the Comhairle has started an overnight support service,addressing the acknowledged deficit in services available for personal care at unsocial hours.One team is fully operational, and another due to start in autumn 2002. The Comhairle andNHS Board jointly fund the overnight support service.The Comhairle and NHS Western Isles work in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland andCrossroads Scotland to provide community care services throughout the Western Isles. Througha network of locally based organisations (Cobhair Barraigh, Tagsa Uibhist, Harris Crossroads,Lewis Crossroads and the Lewis and Harris Alzheimers Service), a home based support servicefor carers and people with dementia ensures they can be supported in their own homes for aslong as possible. It also provides home based respite for carers of people with a wide range ofsupport and care needs.104