Integrated Health and Care in Scotland – the digital link from co-production to policy

Abstract

Introduction: One of the main ambitions in the Scottish Government's 2020 Vision is that by 2020, we have a healthcare system with integrated health and social care with focus on prevention, anticipation and supported self-management and which has the person at the centre of all decisions. Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare (SCTT) considers technology a key element in carrying out the health and social care service integration. SCTT is currently leading on two community and integrated care projects that have the potential to truly transform end user outcomes Living it Up (LiU) and SmartCare. Their unique approach to development and implementation through co-production methodology will ensure the sustainability and quality of innovative and integrated care services that support the national vision and policy. Policy context and objective: Integration of health and social care is the Scottish Government's ambitious programme of reform to improve services for end users. Integration will ensure that health and social care provision across Scotland is joined-up and seamless. Underpinning the programme is the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Bill. Population: The primary targeted population is people 50+ living in Scotland and secondly carers and health professionals. Highlights: The goal is to empower people to improve their health and wellbeing by enabling prevention and supported self-management through information and interaction. Both projects have co-production methodology to establish the needs of the users. All services and tools provided are the result of extensive and continuous community engagement events and co-design workshops attended by members of the community, service providers, technology experts and innovators. We have followed a co-design lifecycle and used different methods. 15th International Conference on Integrated Care, Edinburgh, UK, March 25-27, 2015 1 International Journal of Integrated Care – Volume 15, 27 May – URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-116998 – http://www.ijic.org/ LiU now offers highly innovative services, tools and information through familiar technologies within 4 core service areas: Shine, Discover, Connect and Flourish. A key element in LiU is that all users can contribute and give something back to their communities, along with empowering them with a range of tools that give them the ability to self-manage. The LiU service has developed an open architecture that allows personalised user experience, which utilises a profile and dashboard environment, embracing a digital service offering for health, care and wellbeing. SmartCare delivers through LiU portal a single point of entry information, services and digital tools, such as Shared Diary/Calendar; Community Connections; Person Held File; and Independence & Enablement. Main goal is to help people and their carers to make the best use of local health and social care services to first of all prevent falls and to better manage the situation after a fall. Transferability: LiU and SmartCare demonstrates new ways of providing care services with a true focus on putting the end user and community at the centre of services and information sharing so they are empowered and able to self-manage with appropriate tools and support. This will set the standard for future innovation, health and social care services and national policy. Conclusions:Co-production is valuable tool to identify priority areas and truly innovative ways of providing fully user integrated services and thus supporting directly the national health and social care integration policy.