Case Study: ‘Developing Community Resource Teams in Pembrokeshire, Wales -Integration of health and social care in progress’
Briefly describe the programme. Identify any relevant background or historical information to provide context and state the programmes core aims and objectives.
Community Resource Teams (CRTs) is an effective strategic program through which it is posisbel to deliver quality care and support to the social communities as a whole where there is close cooperation of the country council of Pembrokeshire and this program is covering more than 122439 population across the rural areas with low population density (Theil et al., 2013). The program is hereby beneficial to support the people living in the social communities by delivering quality care and support so that they can maximise their wellbeing and live with safety and security. The aim and objective of the CRT program is to improve or restore the quality of life and confidence of the people with complex health and social care needs where the staff members and other stakeholders of the CRT program aims at providing quality care and treatment to the people suffering from health issues and give them confidence to live normally like others in the society (Theil et al., 2013). The CRT program is also effective for reducing the rate of admission of the patients in the hospitals or nursing homes due to their health issues through delivering continuous care and support to the people across the social communities (Theil et al., 2013). The team members under this CRT program target the population with multiple health and social care needs to reduce the risk of hospitalisation. The majority of clients under this CRT program are older people with dementia and multiple co-morbidities such as cancer, respiratory illness and chronic heart diseases and this program focuses on reducing the rate of hospitalisation of the patients through providing continuous support and quality care at their homes (Theil et al., 2013).
Identify the key stakeholders and describe their role and relationship to the programme.
Community Resource Teams (CRTs) indicates a cooperative working practice with the team members to manage the patients and work with the patients by empowering them in the treatment and care plan (Theil et al., 2013). There are four teams who are the main stakeholder of the CRT program which are social workers, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, district nurses, voluntary sector service brokers and specialist nurses and apart from that there are other stakeholders such as social communities, government and country council of Pembrokeshire who play a crucial role in developing the CRT program in Wales for supporting the social communities and reducing the rate of hospitalisation of the individuals by delivering quality care and support to the social communities (Theil et al., 2013). The team also can include the dietician, speech and language therapist and other health and social care professionals. Hereby, the internal stakeholders for the program are such as staff members, nurses, physiotherapist, health and social care professionals and social workers, who are taking care of the patients, whereas the external stakeholders under the CRT program are the government, the council board and the patients across the social communities, where the main aim of the program is to facilitate early discharge of the patients with complex health and social care needs and to prevent unnecessary admission of the patients at the hospitals (Theil et al., 2013). The role of the internal stakeholder is to support the individuals and deliver proper care and treatment at homes so that the patient can imporve self-management of their health issues. The multi-agency team support the district nurses and occupational therapist as well as physiotherapist and social workers to work cooperatively and diagnose the patient with care for delivering quality treatment according to their health issues (Theil et al., 2013).
It is the role of the stakeholders to engage properly with the CRT program and communicate with each and every member under the program so that the integrated care team can be developed where every patient can get proper treatment and quality care from the stakeholders. The relationship of multi-agency support team with this program is also crucial as the team members take care of all the patients with different health issues and patient’s personal requirements (Theil et al., 2013). The multi-disciplinary team also plays a significant role in developing the program with quality care and treatment after proper empowerment of the patients, where the patient’s decision and feedback matters in developing care plan. The stakeholders are engaged well with each other to develop the program and serve a large population across the social communities and in order to achieve this aim the role of the stakeholders is to increase access for their health and social care service and improve the quality of care to facilitate quality standard and maximising the wellbeing of the population. Understanding the value of the patients as well as managing transparency and accountability in providing the program are also the role of the stakeholders in serving the populations efficiently (Theil et al., 2013).
Examine the internal and external environmental factors which contributed to the development and implementation of this programme and assess their impact.
There are external and internal factors that have crucial impacts on developing and implementing the CRT program, where the internal environmental factors are such as efficient staff members, physiotherapists, multi-disciplinary team, social workers, doctors and other health care professionals, organisational culture, organisational management structure, physical infrastructure and financial investment and apart from that, the external factors for developing and implementing such CRT program include legal rules under Health and Social Care Act 2014, social media for promoting the program, stable political environment, cooperation of the country council of Pembrokeshire, technological advancement and stable economic condition, which influence the staff members to expand the program across the social communities for minimising the rate of admission of the patient at the hospitals and improve wellbeing of the patients by self-management practice and at home by being confident and independent to manage their health issues (Theil et al., 2013).
The organisational structure includes volunteers, brokers, social service providers, Acute Response Team, Joint Discharge Team and Multi Agency Support Team as well as physiotherapist, occupational therapist, clinical nurses and other health care professionals who are efficient to manage the program and implement it by proper financial investment, technological upgradation and developing physical infrastructure where they are successful in providing quality care and support to the society (Theil et al., 2013).
The managerial structure is another important internal factor that helps to implement the CRT program where community nurses, customer service manager and assistants are also managing the program efficiently with proper cooperation and collaboration with the people in the society. Another internal factor is organisational culture where cooperative and partnership working practice enhancing communication, building strong relationship with the patients and respecting them are other contributing factor to make the program efficient for providing care and support to the individuals across the social communities (Theil et al., 2013).
The external factors such as stable political condition in the country as well as cooperation of the country council of Pembrokeshire are contributing factors for developing such program and apart from that the legal rules and legislations such as Health and Social Care Act 2014, data Protection Act 1998, Mental Capacity Act and managing transparency and accountability, respecting all the individual are also effective to develop the program, and serve the social communities by providing proper treatment and medication at home and advising them with proper instruction. In addition to these, technological advancement further helps to manage customer service and promote the program across different social communities through digital advertisement and arranging social campaigning that would help the staff members to make the CRT program successful (Theil et al., 2013).
There are several impacts of such program where the staff members and other health and social care professionals are successful and the effects are such as,
- Reduction of the rate of hospital admission of the patients by providing proper advice and care to the individuals
- Reduction of average length of hospital stay
- Increasing percentage of the staff reporting an overall improvement and satisfaction
- Reduction in emergency admission of the patients in the Pembrokeshire society
- Percentage of people taking active part in the CRT program is increasing
- Raising concern of CRT intervention
Hereby, the external and internal environmental factors are contributing on developing such CRT program where the staff members and managers of this program are proficient to serve the social communities in Pembrokeshire and enhance the quality of health and social care service as well as maximise the wellbeing and standard of living of the individual staying at Pembrokeshire. Through this program, it is possible for the managers to promote healthy living and make the people self-confident and independent to manage their health issues and enhance their wellbeing (Theil et al., 2013). The CRT intervention educate the people to manage their health with medication and taking active care at home which reduces the admission rate at the hospital among the people at Pembrokeshire.
Within the context of this programme, describe the role of the Physiotherapist, and suggest how their practice may differ from traditional ways of working. What attributes and skills are particularly important to this role?
In the present CRT program, the role of the physiotherapist is important as the physiotherapists assess, manage, and treat all the individual with care by acknowledging the actual health issues and personal preferences of the patients. In the recent years the physiographists are responsible for relieving physical pain and health injuries with proper cooperation with the patient by increasing mobility, building strength, improving balance and enhancing performnace and participation of the patient in the care plan which is different from the traditional way of treatment. In the present CRT program, the physiotherapists play a crucial role in enhancing patient’s safety and improving the quality of the health and social care service (Theil et al., 2013). The physiotherapists are also responsible for making the individuals confident and independent for conducting daily activities in their lives through providing training and supporting the patients with proper advice and care. The physiotherapists in the program tries to motivate people to move properly and live a normal life with no pain in their body or other health issues. Developing patient centred care as well as enhancing quality of health care service through self-management technique are effective in this program which is different from the traditional way of treatment.
In addition to these, the physiotherapist manage the workplace, communicate with the patient, maintaining transparency and accountability in providing support to the individuals across the society through the CRT program as well as they focus on improving education for the patients and advising them for better future so that the rate of hospital admission can be reduced, where the patients can manage their health issues at home by proper medication and treatment. The skill required for being a good physiotherapists are such as proper problem solving skill, developing proper decision making skill for the patients after acknowledging the actual health issues an personal needs, ability to encourage the patients and motivate them to improve wellbeing by self-management procedure, ability to handle the team members and high communication skill for providing better acre ad support to the patients under the CRT program (Theil et al., 2013). Interacting with others, communicating with the patients across different social communities, helping others, developing proper personalise care plan for the patient, promoting integration and teamwork, putting the individual at the centre of practice, respecting all the individuals and promoting diversity are the major skill which make the physiotherapists successful and develop effective decision for supporting the patients through the CRT program.
In your opinion, has the programme been effective? Examine the evidence and provide a justification for your response.
The CRT program is effective to serve better care and practice to the individuals across the social communities which reduces the rate of hospital admission for the patients. There were over 392 patients indicating 55% of people reported in 2012 that they were in improved condition and restored and they became confident to manage their health issue independently, where the staff members of the program were cooperating successfully and gave them training for self-management of their health issues with proper medication and treatment (Theil et al., 2013). After CRT involvement, approximately 38% people stated that they became independent in managing their health condition and it further gave them confidence to live by enhancing their wellbeing (Theil et al., 2013). In 2012-2013, the result shows that there was a decline in emergency patient admission at the hospitals due to chronic heart disease from 953 to 704 as well as there was deterioration of the number of patient admitted at the hospitals for diabetic, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and coronary heart disease (CHD), which indicates that there is positive impacts of the CRT program in the society, where the people can manage their health issues at home with proper care and medication (Theil et al., 2013). Hereby, for such CRT program, both the admission rate of the patients at the hospitals as well as time of staying at the hospital are decreasing which indicates that the staff members and the other stakeholders engaged with the CRT program are successful in enhancing quality health and social care services and support the individuals across the social communities with proper care and treatment at home.
In the future, if this programme was to be expanded and introduced to a different and/or wider geographical area, describe what planning, implementation and service delivery recommendations would you make and justify your response.
It is necessary for the government, board member of the council of Pembrokeshire and staff member under the CRT program to expand the service across the different geographical areas over the world so that all the people across the international nations can access the program and imporve their health conditional through self-management process, medication and treatment at home. In order to expand the CRT program, it is necessary for the staff members to engage with the social communities through cooperation and communication as it is effective for building strong relationship with the individuals across the world. In this regard, through communication, the staff members can improve trust and loyalty among the patients, so that the patients can rely on the members under the CRT program. The staff under the program needs to interact with the people and acknowledge their actual health need and personal presences so that the members under the CRT program can develop personalise care plan for the patient to maximise the requirements of the individual and enhance their wellbeing by self-management procedure. Open communication through telephonic conversation, group discussion vand attending meeting are effective for engaging with the social communication. Additionally, cooperation is necessary for expanding the program so that it helps to improve the wellbeing of the social communities, where the staff members, doctors, health care professionals, social workers and physiotherapist can work cooperatively as well as collaborate with the patients to improve engagement with them for supporting them and giving them quality care. Hereby, communication and collaboration are necessary for successful expansion of the CRT program across the different geographical areas.
In addition to this, it is necessary to conduct adequate investment without which it is not posisbel for the members under CRT to expand their services across the globe and in this regard, the board members, government and managers under this CRT program invest more for developing infrastructural structure and hire efficient staff who are able to serve better care and support the social communities which helps to improve self-management efficiency and self-confidence of the patients in the society. Moreover, advertisement is another effective way to expand the service across the international borders, where the staff members need to promote the program through television advertisement as well as utilising digital media for social media advertisement. Televisions advertisement with relevant content about the benefits of the CRT program will attract the audiences in different societies and it further provides an opportunity to expand the service successfully. In the recent era of globalisation and digitalisation, people are concerned about staying healthy and people gather information and be updated by social media and hereby, social media is one of the greatest platforms for expanding the service across the globe, where a short message to the people will be helpful to interact with the individuals and attract them for the CRT program. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter are some effective ways to enhance digital media ad for this, the manager of this program needs to invest more on advertisement and develop valid and simple as well catchy content about the CRT program, create short videos and clipart and upload it through social media.
Moreover, in order to expand the CRT program, it is necessary for the members to arrange social campaign at different geographical areas and attract the citizens to take active part in the campaign, so that the people in the society can understand the purpose and activities taken place under the CRT program. This is also another effective way to expand the service of the CRT program and educate the society to imporve self-management technique for managing health issues and medication at home and enhance confidence by being independent. In addition to these, the members in this CRT program needs to enhance health education in different schools so that the children can learn and imporve their understanding about managing the health issues at home and in this regard, it is necessary to arrange health education program to promote CRT at schools so that it is easy to raise concern about being healthy among the children, parents and educational staff at the school. The strategies of gathering continuous feedback from the patients through improving two-way communication, financial investment for developing infrastructure with updated technology, investment for promoting the CRT program across the geographical areas and increasing the number of efficient staff, doctors and other multi-disciplinary teams members under this CRT program will be beneficial for the team to expand their CRT program and improve the wellbeing of the individuals across the social communities around the world.
Reference List
- Theil, V., Sonola, L., Goodwin, N., and Kodner, D. L., 2013. Developing Community Resource Teams in Pembrokeshire, Wales- Integration of health and social care in progress. London: Kings Fund.
