Setting-based approaches
In this section you will find information on each of the settings-based approaches which support the delivery of Keep Well and Well North - and how each approach is being implemented
Keep Well and Well North have primarily focused on GP practices as the route to deliver targeted health checks. However more recently alternative approaches have been tested to engage and deliver health checks to support the delivery of Keep Well and Well North. These alternative settings include:
- Anticipatory Care in Community Pharmacies
- Scottish Ambulance Service through a mobile paramedic model in rural areas
Anticipatory Care in Community Pharmacies
The pharmacy setting has been identified as an additional setting to carry out health checks to enhance the delivery of the current Keep Well and Well North programmes.
Pharmacies have been recognised as lending themselves well in carrying out more ‘opportunistic’ interventions that have been successful within the Keep Well model. They will focus very much on maximising the health improvement opportunity that contacts between individuals and community pharmacies can provide. This development will test approaches aimed at improving levels of user engagement, health check uptake and access to appropriate services.
- Eight of the Keep Well and Well North programmes were accepted to take forward their proposals for this work and roll out health checks within this setting from early 2010/ 2011.
- An evaluation of this programme was commissioned in parallel to the roll out of this approach. It examined issues such as increased awareness of the extended community pharmacy role, client choice and delivery of health checks. The Anticipatory Care in Community Pharmacies evaluation is now available.
Rural Anticipatory Care Paramedic Programme
Building on the successful delivery of mobile health checks in NHS Western Isles, NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service have identified the opportunity to test this model further within more remote geographical locations including: NHS Ayrshire and Arran, North West Sutherland and Orkney.
This approach allows the Anticipatory Care Programme to continually test a range of different approaches that increase opportunities for individuals to receive a high quality health check irrespective of how isolated their living circumstances are. The development will integrate services such as those provided by the Keep Well & Well North programmes into daily working routines.
The Rural Anticipatory Care Paramedic Programme evaluation is now available. The evaluation aimed to test the delivery of Keep Well and Well North health checks by trained Scottish Ambulance Service paramedics.
Community & Voluntary Sector
Partnerships between Community and Voluntary Sector Organisations and Anticipatory Care have been developed. NHS Health Scotland led a programme of work in 2009 / 2010 to support the development of partnerships between community and voluntary sector organisations and Anticipatory Care programmes in Scotland. The aim of the partnerships was to enhance the outcomes of Anticipatory Care in reaching and enhancing the health of people within the population target group.
Reviewed 4 November 2011