Community Integrated Teams (CIT) Living Well Links
Age UK Sunderland’s Living Well Link Service is part of five Community Integrated Locality Teams providing care and support in and through local communities of Sunderland.
Funded by NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, AUKS Living Well Link (LWL) social prescribing service supports individuals to self-manage their needs.
The focus of the LWL workers is to reconnect individuals that have become disconnected with their local community and the opportunities this offers. The LWL service offers a first point of contact to provide on-going support so older people don’t immediately look for medical support or interventions. AUKS work with the our partner organisations across Sunderland to co-design and co-produce an innovative combination of medical and non-medical support that that older people say is most important to them.
There is a dedicated LWL worker in each integrated team linking older people to local services within their local community, Monday to Friday from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.
The LWL service provides older people with support to promote health and wellbeing by social prescribing into local services, whilst reducing loneliness and isolation.
The aim of the LWL Service is to put older people living in Sunderland in personal control of their health and wellbeing. LWL Workers are working closely with Community Matrons, District Nurses and Social workers within the integrated teams to ensure older people with long term health issues receive personalised, integrated care and support to live independent lives.
What is Integrated Care?
Integrated care is a way of coordinating health and social care services to make sure they are tailored to the person’s needs. It is aimed particularly at those with complex and long term health problems. Integrated Care brings together voluntary, health and social care organisations across Sunderland to ensure older people are control of their health to help maintain independence and quality of life.
The Target Group?
The AUKS LWL social prescribers work to support the older people living in Sunderland who meet the following criteria:
- Older people who are 65+ and have 2 or more complex health conditions
- Older people with long term conditions, mainly focused on one condition and have less varied and complex needs.
How does this work?
The LWL workers work across localities and visit patients in their homes as well as in other community settings. The service is driven by the needs of the patients (older people), many of which have complex needs. The service focuses on practical support to encourage patients to utilise services within their local community. This includes:
- Assisted signposting to services and social prescribing in the community which help maintain their health and wellbeing such as leisure and learning, social groups etc.
- One to One Support to help with issues such as arranging for support to access appointments, helping with an wide spectrum of social issues.
- Social contact to establish support from befriending services for those in social isolation or risk of.
- Interim support to help support older people whilst other support is put in place such as a visit from a volunteer befriender etc.
The LWL workers identify individuals with anxiety, mental health conditions and those who are socially isolated. Older people are then linked up AUKS’s and other voluntary and community support such as specialist befriending services, lunch clubs, day centres, exercise groups, mental health services and many more to develop social connections and improve physical and mental wellbeing.
The service is available via your GP Surgery or you can make a self-referral, for further information about the Living Well Link Service please contact:
CIT Living Well Link Team
Age UK Sunderland
Bradbury Centre
Stockton Road
Sunderland
SR2 7AQ
Phone: 0191 514 1131