Growth and development.pdf

OrkneyBetween 1999 and 2001 the number of people receiving a community care service for mentalhealth problems increased significantly and the rate of provision is now high. The Council haveagreed with NHS Orkney a new integrated service for mental health, and a joint mental healthmanager. They have provided funding to the Blide trust to assist this organisation with thepurchase of their property to enable improved services for adults. It has appointed a co-ordinatorto work with service users and carers, and a substance misuse worker in housing support. It isstill necessary to call on psychiatric services in Aberdeen to deliver a full mental health service,a new home treatment programme in Stromness may reduce the need for some transfers.Single shared assessment, using a locally developed tool, has been piloted with older peopleand is now being rolled out to all care groups, including people with a sensory impairment.Waiting times for assessments have been reduced and improvements made in access to services.Orkney has used the “resource utilisation measure” with 100 assessments and is now ready toroll out its use with single shared assessment.Working under the joint manager for occupational therapy, a rehabilitation officer supports peoplewith either a hearing or visual impairment. There is a visual impairment association, but nosimilar group for people with a hearing impairment. Resources for working with people with asensory impairment are proportionate to the needs which the Council has identified.There has been a large increase in the number of people receiving a community care servicefor drug/alcohol problems between 1999 and 2001, and the rate is now higher than in manyother authorities.A joint health and social work management team determines joint resourcing of services andmanages the developing range of joint posts – notably in strategic planning, occupationaltherapy services, rapid response and intensive home care. Progress on a partnership agreementhas been limited, because shortage of health funds has limited the capacity to deliver jointresourcing.The Community Social Services Department and NHS Orkney are establishing an integratedtraining service, to cover statutory core training, joint management training, and combination ofthe SVQ centres to provide for care awards. Most professional post-qualifying training willcontinue to have to be delivered on a specialist basis. Economies are possible from integratingadministrative services and combining in-house training.195