CO MPASSIONATE FROME
Compassionate Frome – working towards a more connected community Helen Kingston GP
Our project sought systematically to identify people who might need a particular kind of support. As we found ways to work as one team strong supportive networks have developed across the different parts of the NHS social care and voluntary sector in our community. Having a team with shared values has given us confidence and energy to continue to try and make a difference. The savings suggest that this way of working improves quality of care, and offers us the possibility of a sustainable self-financing new model.
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I set up the Compassionate Frome project with Jenny Hartnoll in 2013. As the project has grown and expanded across the Mendips, I also worked closely with compassionate communities. The project was designed to better connect and support patients and improve working lives for those in healthcare. It has also demonstrated cost savings as a by-product of this patient-centred approach. In July this year I was awarded a Point of Light award by the Prime Minster on behalf of the team for the work and its achievements.
Our project began in 2013, partly as a response to patients whose problems required more than medication, but in an environment where clinicians were ever more expected to rely on linear algorithms for single diseases. Each of us is, after all, so much more than a list of our diseases, and these constraints seemed increasingly to distract from what was most important to the individual. In each one of us there are qualities to love and admire: some of us are more extrovert, more confident and more able to take the opportunities that life may provide us. Our sometimes contradictory emotions, and the history of how we have become who we are today, are what makes us human. We need to understand each other’s frailties and imperfections and find acceptance, because the connections we make with our fellow human beings are an essential part of what makes life worth living. When faced with a simple problem most of us can make the right decision. However, someone faced with a complex mix of conflicting emotions, previous adverse experiences and a lack of self-confidence might well struggle to move forward. To help someone in this predicament to make progress we must first understand their perspective and what is most important to them. This will require
empathy, listening skills and time to connect and understand. Professionals can help but equally friends, neighbours and family members also have these abilities. and they in turn may be best placed to offer these gifts. By building a more connected community everyone benefits, but in particular those who lack connectedness, some of whom are among the most vulnerable in our community.
Reaching out Our project sought proactively and systematically to identify people who might need this kind of support. For instance we contacted anyone discharged from hospital after an emergency admission, and we set out to identify anyone who – whether at a home visit, or at an appointment – had appeared to be at a crossroads or indeed in crisis. We believed that in such vulnerable times, networks of support either became visible or were most obviously needed, and that the impetus to make a change in the pattern of life could become more activated. A hub team working within our GP surgery has time protected for carrying out this important work and to offer support. To link up concerns and co-ordinate the care of those most in need, our hub nurse is available for
© Journal of holistic healthcare
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Volume 15 Issue 3 Autumn 2018
