Health and Social Care

Chief Officers Spotlight: Christina West

May 26, 2015 by Linda White No Comments | Category Uncategorized

Argyll and Bute is geographically the second largest local authority area in Scotland. We have 23 inhabited islands, scattered, remote rural communities and a number of large towns.

Locality owned, locality planned and locality delivered – this is the guiding principle for developing integrated health and social care services in Argyll and Bute. Our plan is based upon our recognised four administrative localities with operational delivery organised around our natural communities.

What does it mean? It means that in Argyll and Bute we are fortunate to have local knowledge and community involvement informing the provision of services that meet the needs of the people who use them. This is critical in planning and delivery of sustainable services in remote communities.

To deliver effective integrated health and social care services, the plan is to draw on the expertise, resilience and ingenuity of our communities in finding solutions that will work for different areas. It will be about recognising that one size does not fit all, using information about the health and social care needs of a locality and designing services to meet these needs, while drawing on the range of existing local groups, organisations, the independent and voluntary sector. This is how we can ensure people receive a high quality and responsive service when it is needed.

An essential component in supporting the delivery of accessible services is the use of technology to allow the self-management of long term health conditions, which means people remain in their own homes, linked to local teams who provide person centred care.

Our staff are our greatest asset and they live and work in their own local communities which really helps us build local knowledge and skills.

Health and social care integration will make the services we deliver more focused on the person’s needs, high quality and resilient to changing demand. This is the core of our vision – that people in Argyll and Bute live longer, healthier, happier and independent lives.

Tags: Argyll, Bute, Chief Officer, Home, Integration, Islands, Technology

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