Building bridges, breaking barriers looks at how well care for older people is integrated across health and social care, as well as the impact on older people who use services and their families and carers.
The review seeks to improve our understanding of how services work together to meet the needs of older people.
We gathered evidence from a range of sources, undertook site visits and spoke with older people and their carers to understand how integration across services affected their experiences of care. We looked for examples of where care was coordinated effectively and identified barriers that prevent it from working well.
We found many initiatives aimed at delivering integrated care. We saw some good practice, and in many cases considerable drive from providers and commissioners to improve the way services work together, but we did not find many examples of it working really well. There was considerable variation in the care provided and in the experiences and outcomes for older people.
Across the eight sites we reviewed, our findings related to both how services were working together and the impact this has on older people’s experiences. Looking at how services were working together for older people, we found that:
Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle underground station (Northern and Bakerloo lines).
Nearest Railway Station: Elephant & Castle
Buses from Elephant and Castle: ask bus driver for Burgess Park. Bus numbers: 12, 171, 148, 176, 68, 484, 42, 40, 45