An award-winning project that has helped improve the health of more than 100 people in Newquay is being extended to Penwith in the new year.
People who have been supported by the Newquay Pathfinder have seen significant improvements to their health and wellbeing; fewer emergency hospital admissions and being less dependent on social care support.
Around 1,000 people living in Penwith will now benefit from the same tailored care from the NHS, Peninsula Community Health, Cornwall Council, Age UK Cornwall, volunteers and community services from January. The new Penwith Pathfinder will be called Changing Lives.
NHS Kernow's managing director Joy Youart said: "I am really grateful to Age UK for working with us and their support to deliver the Pathfinder project to some of our most vulnerable people. The Newquay Pathfinder has been so successful because of the charity's tireless support and ongoing partnership will allow us to help even more people.
"The simplicity of the Pathfinder is that … it's about listening to the person's story, identifying their individual needs and making services and support fit around the person to help them live the life they want to live.
"We are now able to wrap services around a person as soon as possible to ensure we are no longer reactively responding to their needs and helping them to manage their conditions in their own homes. "
The Pathfinder is designed to provide long-term sustainable support for people, by providing services such as falls prevention support, memory cafes, befriending and exercise groups to help reduce their dependency on social care support.
Tracey Roose from Age UK Cornwall said: "We are working together to remove the barriers between health, social care and the voluntary sector to improve the quality of life of people in Penwith and this funding will assist us to build capacity within our services and in the community. We delivered some great results together in Newquay and we want to build on that experience to involve more partners and more people in the west of Cornwall. We hope that if successful, this will become the main way of working across our community."
