Older People’s Care Improvement Initiative: Developing a network of care

The IMPACTAgewell® initiative, led by Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership (MEAAP), is now developing its plans for the next five years to support older people to age well and remain as healthy and happy at home for as long as possible.

IMPACTAgewell® is a collaborative project, which works alongside local GP Practices, Community Pharmacists, Northern Health & Social Care Trust Social Work teams and the Community/Voluntary Sector to build the care and support around each older person.

Since 2017 the project has been funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust, which will now work with the Health and Social Care Board to provide support until 2025.

Since April 2017, we are very proud to have supported over 1,000 older people at risk of long-term health conditions who are registered with 1 of the 15 GP Practices involved in the project. We work with them to develop health and wellbeing action plans addressing the many things that might affect them – be it accessing transport, heating their home, not understanding their medications, securing support to better manage their long term health conditions, or indeed something as simple as claiming their benefits

Deirdre McCloskey, MEAAP Project Co-ordinator

The announcement was made today at their “Sharing our Learning” event at the Rosspark Hotel in Kells by Valerie Watts, Chief Executive of the Health and Social Care Board who said:

In light of the emerging positive evaluation findings and the ongoing commitment from the Dunhill Medical Trust, the Health and Social Care Board has agreed to contribute funding to secure the IMPACTAgewell® project for the next five years. This is fantastic news for older people and the Trust in Mid and East Antrim and will enable the roll out of IMPACTAgewell® on a phased basis to cover all 26 GP practices in the Mid and East Antrim area.”

Susan Kay, CEO of the Dunhill Medical Trust, took the opportunity to congratulate MEAAP and all of the partners involved in this collaborative initiative:

This fantastically energetic partnership has met all of its considerable challenges with positivity and commitment.  It has demonstrated that it really doesn’t matter whether services are owned by the public, private or third sectors – the imperative is that those sectors need to find ways to work together seamlessly to benefit the community.  It’s really demonstrated what can be done and we’re delighted to be able to continue to play our part.”

Conference room full of event attendees
The announcement was made during MEAAP’s excellent ‘Sharing our Learning’ event, which celebrated the achievements and outcomes of IMPACTAgewell® so far.

Those attending the event were treated to a live performance from the Boogie Bouncing Over 50’s Ladies Group from Ballymena, and heard from keynote speaker Sir Harry Burns, who as Professor of Global Health at the University of Strathclyde shared his passion for empowering communities to be actively involved in creating and indeed delivering health solutions.

Further information: contact the MEAAP office on 028 2565 8604, email [email protected] or visit www.meaap.co.uk.

Download the evaluation report

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