Case study:

17 August 2007

Ten point action plan to improve palliative care services

Key points

Adult Social Services in Norfolk have produced a 10-point action plan to improve the standard and delivery of palliative care services across the county.

The plan was triggered by the Norfolk Health & Overview Scrutiny Report 2005 Death and Dying in Norfolk and Waveney.

The action plan includes:

A pilot project to offer bereavement ‘follow up’ visits by social care staff following the death of a clientAllowing one member of staff who has built up close relations with patients to attend funerals in work timePromoting the implementation of the Gold Standards Framework and Liverpool Care PathwaysOffering free overnight accommodation in local authority homes for relatives, friends and carers of people who are terminally illProviding information on all meals services for unpaid carers of people who are in the later stages of a terminal illnessAppointing palliative care champions in all adult care teams, may include mental health teams in the futureProviding a high quality electronic directory of palliative care services for most of Norfolk with the aim of extending it to the whole countyJoint working with the health service to implement the Preferred Place of Care Plan

This action plan is already having an impact.

Palliative care champions have been appointed in each adult social services team and a Norfolk PCT joint county clinical group is overseeing the implementation of the Advanced Care Plan as a tool to promote Preferred Place of Care in health and adult social services.

In addition a six-month pilot project has been set up in Broadland District to assess the value of follow-up visits to support bereaved carers.

Adult social services staff have also begun to attend GSF meetings and in November the next Palliative Care Champions workshop will bring together health and social care colleagues to promote further joint working.

The specialist palliative care team at the Priscilla Bacon Centre in Norwich has also developed a psychosocial model for specialist palliative care services that will inform future work regarding the review of the role of the social worker in palliative and end of life care.

Meanwhile work has been completed on the electronic palliative care directory and a filofax has been produced, awaiting publication, for each of the three of the county’s specialist palliative care teams.