{"id":246169,"date":"2010-01-29T10:32:36","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T15:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/careandsupport.direct.gov.uk\/?p=2811"},"modified":"2010-01-29T10:32:36","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T15:32:36","slug":"brent-visit-launches-care-and-support-showcase-visits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/246169","title":{"rendered":"Brent visit launches care and support showcase visits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JonEnoch_PhilHope_002\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Care Services Minister Phil Hope travelled to the north London Borough of Brent in the first of a series of visits highlighting good practice in care and support services.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The minister visited Kingsbury Resource Centre, created by Brent Council to provide a range of activities for older people to help them socialise and keep active. The overall aim is to prevent hospital or care home admissions and ensure that older local\u00a0residents have the right type of care and support to allow them to live safely and independently in their own home.<\/p>\n

\u201cKingsbury Resource Centre shows that helping people stay active and independent is key to a people-centred care and support system,\u201d said Mr Hope.<\/p>\n

The Minister spoke to local councillors and Brent community services officials about the Government\u2019s plans to create a national care service for all adults in England. He then had a question and answer session with a group of regular centre attendees\u00a0before\u00a0touring\u00a0the facility.<\/p>\n

Currently, 125 older people from across the borough use the centre, with more on the waiting list. Between 30 and 40 people attend every weekday. Most attend one day a week, but others with greater care needs\u00a0come up to three or four days.<\/p>\n

There is a private room which is used for medical visits, visits from a hairdresser, massage and nail-cutting.The centre is fully wheelchair accessible and\u00a0has a changing\u00a0 area and toilet for people with disabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regular activities on offer include art and crafts, cake making,\u00a0games, quizzes and bingo, keep fit sessions, current affairs discussions and internet training. There is also aromatherapy, tai chi, yoga and gardening. Outings, parties and a range of cultural and faith events are held throughout the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have five buses that go out and collect the individuals from their homes,\u201d said Resource Centre Manager Bharti Pattni. \u201cWhen they arrive we serve tea and coffee and biscuits and then they come into the main day room.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of them love to play dominoes. Some of them have sing-alongs in one of the other rooms. They don\u2019t get bored. You never see people doze off. Everybody sits down together for lunch, it\u2019s very sociable.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>A look at the lunch menu illustrates how the centre\u2019s work reaches across the whole of Brent\u2019s diverse ethnic and cultural mix. There are columns headed \u201cAsian vegetarian\u201d, \u201cAsian non-vegitarian\u201d, \u201cCaribbean\u201d and \u201cEnglish\u201d, offering dishes ranging from\u00a0methi paneer to callalloo and saltfish or\u00a0savoury minced beef.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has made a big difference to my life,\u201d said Mrs Murif, who has been coming to the centre for five and a half years. \u201cI don\u2019t want to sit at home and watch the TV. It\u2019s like when I went to work. Deciding what to wear, what to bring for lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve made friends here. We have a chat and a debate. What\u2019s in the news and the papers or whatever. I\u2019ve been painting on a Monday and do exercise on a Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do knitting, sewing, computers,\u201d said Mrs Murif\u2019s friend Cecilia Sam. \u201cI like the computers very much. In my day we didn\u2019t even use calculators. Now I can do everything. I use it to email my children and grandchildren. And the staff and the managers here are excellent. They make you feel at home.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is their centre, not ours,” said Mrs Pattni.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The centre\u00a0is part of the\u00a0Partnerships for Older People Projects (POPP) initiative. Brent\u00a0Council was one of 29 Local Authority-led partnerships selected by the Department of Health for funding under the scheme. In the Brent POPP pilot, the Integrated Care Co-ordination Service (ICCS) was established, funded by the Department of Health and Brent Primary Care Trust.<\/p>\n

The ICCS service is provided to people aged 65 and over who may be at risk of avoidable hospital admissions\u00a0or premature admission to residential care. They may be causing concern to GPs or others because they are at some risk in their homes due to medical, physical or social issues.<\/p>\n

The ICCS takes a holistic approach with health and social services such as GPs and social workers working together to identify those who would benefit from the early intervention of the ICCS team.<\/p>\n

Lesley Braithwaite, POPP Project Coordinator, said: \u201cIdentifying people\u2019s needs before they become critical, and working across the complicated health and social care system to try and solve them, has been demonstrated through the POPP project. It saves money in acute care like hospital stays and A&E admissions and helps maintain people in their own homes safely and with improved confidence and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Phil<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Research has found that the Kingsbury Resource Centre saves between 14 and 29 hospital bed days a year, and between three and eight accident and emergency attendances. If this were replicated nationally, it could save as much as three percent of the NHS budget.<\/p>\n

Brent\u2019s Councillor Reg Colwill, Lead Member for Adult and Community Care, said: \u201cWe know this is what people want, and we know that it is not only appreciated by carers, the people who have used the service and staff, but that it is also cost effective. Prevention works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only does it improve people\u2019s quality of life, but it is cost effective and helps prevent A&E admissions,\u201d said Phil Hope. \u201cThe Government will soon set out a blueprint for a new National Care Service that builds on the best elements of the current system. We are committed to creating a system that is fair, simple and affordable for all adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hope\u2019s visit to Brent was the first in a series in the run-up to the publication of the care and support White Paper. The visits will showcase the best parts of the current care and support system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Care Services Minister Phil Hope travelled to the north London Borough of Brent in the first of a series of visits highlighting good practice in care and support services. The minister visited Kingsbury Resource Centre, created by Brent Council to provide a range of activities for older people to help them socialise and keep active. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}