Personalised Care
What is Personalised Care?
Imagine a world where you:
- Are the most important person in your health and care.
- Are seen as an equal and active partner in conversations and decision making about your health and wellbeing.
- Are not just a patient with symptoms and separate conditions but seen as a whole person with different experiences, strengths and priorities.
- Are not offered a one size fits all approach but instead you are supported to make a shared and informed decision about your health and wellbeing needs so you can live the life you want to live.
- Only have to tell your story once and the focus of the conversation is about ‘what matters to you’ and what is important to you, not what is wrong with you.
Personalised Care takes a whole system approach, enabling services across health, social care, public health and community to be linked together around the person.
It represents a new relationship between people, professionals and the health and care system and provides a positive shift in power and decision making, supporting people to feel informed, have a voice, to be heard and to be connected to each other and their communities.
It supports people to be treated as individuals whose knowledge, values, preferences, family and social circumstances are seen as being of crucial importance when deciding how to manage their care and support.
It is a means of focusing on reducing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health through focusing on individual needs and priorities.
Personalised Care and the Long Term plan
Personalised care represents a major practical change to the NHS and is a key driver of the NHS Long Term Plan. The Universal Personalised Care Model was published as part of the NHS Long Term plan and was co-produced with people with lived experience, taking a significant amount of leaning and evidence from other parts of the system including health, social care and the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE).
Our aim is to engage in a non-judgmental, balanced, and open way, as we know this can be a sensitive and personal topic. The NHS wants to empower people through knowledge, understanding, and motivation - so we can find out what it means for them, as an individual, to take responsibility of their wellbeing.
Our vision
Our connected Somerset system will enable individuals to be equal partners in decision making, based on what matters to them-making this the golden thread that runs through everything we do
6 approaches to Personalised Care
Through these approaches, we want the people of Somerset to live their best lives, supported by thriving and connected communities.
Engaging with people and communities
The people and communities of Somerset are at the heart of everything we do. We want to ensure that the work to shape and deliver Personalised Care and person-centred approaches in Somerset is genuinely informed and guided by people and communities and those with lived experience from the very beginning and throughout.
It’s important that we have a real depth of understanding people’s experiences of Personalised Care and that everyone in Somerset has the opportunity to share their views and experiences with and to work with us to design services that best serve the needs of individuals and communities.
Survey Findings - You Said We Did
What we did
In September 2023, we asked people in Somerset to complete an online survey, to learn more about their understanding, views and experiences of Personalised Care and to understand how people feel about managing their own physical health and mental wellbeing.
The survey generated some really rich information that we are using to inform and guide the work we are doing. It also generated interest in working closely with us to shape and guide our approaches and to help us make the shift from a one-size-fits-all health and care system to one that is able to deliver better outcomes and experiences based on what matters to the person.
What we found:
We have heard that people want to have the same choices around their physical and mental health and wellbeing as they do in other areas of their life but we recognise there are some barriers and understand the impact this has on people’s confidence and ability to live their lives based on what truly matters to them. We also know that we need to do much more work to ensure that we reach out to diverse communities across Somerset and to pro-actively engage with those who may be digitally excluded or who may face barriers to engaging with us.
We are committed to working with you as equal partners to design, plan, assess and deliver support together. This means we can build partnerships with community groups, invest in meaningful support, and co-design effective strategies for change. Everyone has a vital contribution to make to improve the quality of life for the people and communities of Somerset and we will only get this right if we do it together.
We are really pleased to be able to share the results of this survey with you.
