Integrated Care Partnership meeting focuses on prevention

The BSW Integrated Care Partnership came together recently to discuss how health and care partners across the area can work effectively together to increase the focus on prevention of ill health and early intervention.

Prevention and early intervention is one of BSW ICB’s three objectives and reflects a shared commitment to ensuring people are able to stay healthier for longer. It unites all partners across BSW and is a key part of BSW ICB’s rationale for wanting to work together.

It is important because the most effective way to improve healthy life expectancy is to create the right conditions, communities and environments for children and adults to remain healthy, regardless of where they live in BSW.

The ICP meeting provided an opportunity to examine the objective in detail and set out areas of focus including targeting  funding and resources on prevention rather than treatment, intervening before ill health occurs, identifying ill health early, slowing and stopping disease progression and tackling wider social issues and factors that may contribute to ill health.

BSW ICB has committed to progress in each of these areas in its Integrated Care Strategy and, during the meeting, speakers highlighted initiatives carried out so far to advance work in these specific areas.

Examples highlighted include the development of an obesity strategy, improving access to mental health support for people with severe mental Illness through new access models, and smoking cessation outreach events and initiatives.

Attendees at the meeting also heard about the formation of a Prevention Strategy Group to drive continued system-wide development of prevention initiatives.

Future public meetings of the ICP will focus on BSW ICB’s other key objectives of creating fairer health outcomes and building excellent health and care services.

You can download presentations from the meeting at the BSW ICB website : https://bsw.icb.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/04/BSW-Integrated-Care-Partnership-meeting-12-March-2.pdf