Growth and development.pdf

2. Performance: Community CareBalance of care (aged 65+)Older people in residential care homes 638 21 2 597 19 2Older people in private nursing homes 1,047 34 1 1,033 34 1Older people receiving home care 1,635 53 4 1,612 52 4Older people in special needs housing 5,255 171 1 4,855 156 1People receiving a communitycare service1999actual1999-2000actual1999per 1,0001999-2000per 1,000QuartileQuartile2000actual2000-2001actual2000per 1,0002000-2001per 1,000QuartileQuartileOlder people (aged 65+) 4,465 143.5 4 4,128 132.7 4For mental health problems/dementia 179 1.3 4 184 1.3 4(aged 18-64)For physical disabilities (aged 18-64) 1,040 7.3 4 1,111 7.8 3For learning disabilities (aged 18-64) 174 1.2 4 262 1.8 4For drug/alcohol abuse problems 74 0.5 3 108 0.8 3(aged 18-64)Older people are more likely to be in residential or nursing home care than those in most otherauthorities. Around 50 people are waiting for placements in nursing homes, most for a placementin the locality of their choice. By contrast, the proportion of older people receiving home care islow, though many of them are in special needs housing, a significant feature of local communitybasedcare. Enhanced care sheltered housing complexes have proved to be a cost-effectivemeans of providing community based care. With finance from the modernising communitycare incentive fund a mid-day meal service has been introduced in 5 project areas, to provideolder tenants with good quality nutritious meals and social companionship.Plans are at an early stage to establish up to 25 health and community care locality teams toprovide integrated services, initially to older people. They are to be based on GP practices orgroups of practices, and to comprise care managers, community nurses, health visitors, homecare supervisors and occupational therapists.Learning disability and mental health services are provided by teams which have shared socialwork and health management. Learning disability teams have been strengthened by additionalcare management posts financed from the Change Fund. A joint training co-ordinator coversthe three North East authorities. Supported living options are being developed with partneragencies for people with varying levels of disability.By developing individual care programmes the mental health team has helped to achieve asignificant reduction in compulsory admissions, although there has been an increase in noncompulsoryadmissions. Stronger primary care support would consolidate improvements.Considerable progress has been made towards developing single shared assessment, linkingwell with the effective development of the health and community care teams. A singleassessment tool should be in place by the end of May 2002, with appropriate trainingprogrammes.18