Impact of Austerity on General Practice: Supporting Patients with Social Welfare Concerns
General practice GPs are increasingly helping patients with social welfare and financial issues due to austerity measures. This service has alleviated financial stress, improved health outcomes, and reduced pressure on healthcare providers.
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Presentation Transcript
Embedding Advice Services in Health Settings Roddy Samson
Impact of Austerity on General Practice GPs increasingly supporting patients with social welfare and financial concerns. GP workload adversely affected by greater financial hardship and changes to welfare provision Requests for medical reports to support benefit applications and appeals increasing Realistic Medicine -What matters to you? I cannot address medical issues as I have to deal with my patient s agenda first which is getting money to feed her family and heat her home. GP
Services Provided Benefits and Tax Credits Problem Indebtedness Housing Income Maximisation Employability Deal with Socio Economic Problems Early to Increase Chance of Engagement
Making it Work Links with health services validates service Embedded Model Access to Systems and Records Welfare Rights Adviser Part of Team (sharing information / integration / nights out) Use Experienced Advisers (SNSIAP & FCA) Identify and Fix Problems Early Partnership Working Team Meetings / Training to feedback on success and emerging issues.
Impact on patients Improved financial, material and social circumstances .. Lower stress and anxiety Better sleeping patterns More effective use of medication Smoking cessation, improved diet and physical activity Feeling in control of the problem and able to deal with similar problems in the future Having control over their life to live the way they want to Able to have a say in the decisions that affect them This service has changed my life around tremendously, it has turned my life around and allowed me to get out of the house. Patient
Impact on General Practice Reductions in consultations and prescribing Health staff confident in raising the issue of money worries Person-centred care Minimises requests for support with health-related benefit form filling, medical reports etc. Practice staff make better use of time focussing on clinical care This project is taking a huge amount of pressure off me to support people with matters I don t know much about. GP
Family Friendly Advice Partnership of NHS, Third Sector, and Local Authority. Focus on addressing unmet advice needs, and providing access to advice services to those who would otherwise not access them (or know they have an advice need). Community based rights organisation working in partnership with trusted intermediaries who provide legitimacy.
Project Remit Increase referrals from partner agencies to advice services. Building on work started March 2014 - initially focussing on uptake of HSV. Offers income maximisation and money advice services to referred families.
Need Families do not claim their full range of entitlements following the birth of a child. Family finances are affected following birth of a child leading to problem indebtedness and other problems. Maximising household income has a positive impact on health and reduces child poverty. Offering advice services to families around the birth of a child = intelligent intervention .
Referrals Remit is to increase referrals from partner agencies. Referred/signposted families do not always follow-up referral. Existing advice services do not always have capacity. Provide an advice service that could accept all referrals made from partners. Build on work embedding advice services within General Practice.
Midwifery Referral Process Started with Leith midwifery referrals. Trak asks a suite of questions about money worries and financial capability. Only 1% of maternity bookings documented that a referral had been made. Increase referrals and streamline process. Embed the advice service within the process.
Referral Process TRAK Details of referred women extracted by NHSL E-mail referrals to adviser Honorary contracts and NHS e-mail addresses Families referred to other ancillary / complimentary services for assistance
Outcomes & Successes HSV receipt maintains at a high level. Over 2.6 million financial gain in under 3 years. (Over 4k per family). Increase in referrals from project partners to advice service. Top Team Award.
Thank You Roddy Samson @adviceinhealth roddy.samson@improvementservice.org.uk http://qir.bmj.com/content/5/1/u210506.w4243 Kerry McKenzie kerry.mckenzie@nhs.net
Questions and discussion Thinking about your role/service, how can you support families to access advice services? What are the key financial issues affecting the families that you are working with, or provide services to?
