The Island’s second Wellbeing Partnership will be officially launched next week, this time in the South.
The Southern Wellbeing Partnership will be based in Thie Rosien in Port Erin (adjacent to the Southern Group Practice and Southlands Resource Centre), and will establish the provision of integrated community care for residents living within the catchment area for the three GP Practices in the south of the Island (Southern Group Practice, Ballasalla Medical Centre and Castletown Medical Centre), ensuring that people who need access to health and social care services can do so closer to their homes.
The Wellbeing Partnership Model has been developed by Manx Care and represents a new way of working with Third Sector organisations to deliver a seamless and efficient person-centred, multi-agency health and social care service through a single point of referral. This will deliver better outcomes for Manx residents by ensuring there is better co-ordination of health and social care services closer to their homes that meet the needs of the local community, and that are focused on helping people to maintain their independence. The Partnership will also act as a confidential signposting service for people where required.
The launch of the Southern Wellbeing Partnership on Wednesday 8 December builds on the success of the Island’s first Wellbeing Partnership in the West, which was officially launched in February 2020 in Peel. Similar Wellbeing Partnerships are being developed in the North (Ramsey) and the East of the Island to further improve access to community-based health and social care services for residents living in each area.
Although the Southern Wellbeing Centre will be based in Port Erin, the Partnership will provide a counter service initially for one day a week in Ballasalla (at the Malew Parish Commissioners’ Office on the Main Road), and one day a month in Castletown (at the Town Commissioners in the Civic Centre on Farrants Way). It’s hoped this will also increase to become a weekly service early in the New Year. Offering a physical presence in both Ballasalla and Castletown is in direct response to feedback provided by residents of each area during the public consultation events that were held prior to the service being developed in the South, with community feedback an integral part of its future development.
Minister for Health and Social Care, Lawrie Hooper MHK, will officially open the Southern Wellbeing Centre in a private ceremony on the morning of 8 December, with a public Open Afternoon between 2pm and 6pm where people can drop-in to look at the facilities at Thie Rosien, meet some of the health and social care practitioners who’ll be based there, and see how the services provided through the Southern Wellbeing Partnership may be able to support them.
Manx Care’s Executive Director of Social Care, Sally Shaw, commented:
“The development of the Southern Wellbeing Partnership and the opening of the Southern Wellbeing Centre is an example of Manx Care’s commitment to deliver the right care, at the right time and in the right place, whilst putting individuals, families and our communities at the centre of care delivery. Wellbeing Partnerships provide one single point of access to health and social care services delivered within the community, making this more easily accessible to a wider group of people in a supportive, inclusive and confidential environment is striving to achieve this.
“The Wellbeing Partnership model represents a blueprint for our Island in the way we work to deliver health and social care services collaboratively with our partners in the Third Sector, and in line with the recommendations made by Sir Jonathan Michael in his independent review into the provision of health and social care in the Isle of Man. I hope the Open Day will give people living in the South the opportunity to see how the service will be able to support them.”
In line with the current Covid-19 guidance, facemasks will be compulsory for all visitors to the Southern Wellbeing Centre. People are being encouraged to take a Lateral Flow Test 45-60 minutes before travelling there, and once again in the days after the event. In addition, contact details will be taken for all guests for contact-tracing purposes, alongside additional measures including the use of hand sanitiser. Coffee, tea, soft drinks and mince pies will be available to all visitors next Wednesday.
