The future of Shared Care

We are planning to develop shared care in a number of ways. Firstly we have been developing clinics in pharmacy settings so that patients can access treatment closer to home. The pharmacy clinic works very much like the GP model. A shared care worker delivers care in conjunction with a specially trained pharmacist. Patients are seen at the pharmacy for their prescribing needs and psychosocial interventions. The shared care worker and pharmacist will also signpost to appropriate agencies to deal with other issues such as vaccinations and wellbeing issues.

We are also looking to develop an enhanced shared care service with surgeries that are willing to work with substance misuse patients in a location that has poor representation from primary care services. We propose to enable patients to have the choice of returning to a GP practice that is within their locality but has chosen to specialise in substance misuse, as such they would provide all the patient's needs for their dependency, but the patient if not registered with that surgery, would still see their own GP for their general health requirements.

The enhanced shared care would look to provide support around, housing, debt, Citizens Advice Bureau, Criminal Justice treatment orders, wellbeing, blood born viruses etc. In addition we are hoping to offer group work for eg. Narcotics anonymous, Alcoholics anonymous, harm reduction, relapse prevention, family support, as well as 1:1 sessions in recognised therapies such as SBNT, CBCS, MET. We would also offer education sessions to patients, carers and parents around substance misuse and attitudes.

Providing better care for the service users and the dependents of those patients would also be a big priority of the new shared care service. We hope to tackle the social exclusion that this patient group has experienced in the past.