Thomas Monaghan, our Portfolio Lead, discusses our Living and Dying Well with Frailty Collaborative

People in Scotland are living longer than ever before, which is to be celebrated. This means that we all get to spend more time with our loved ones. However, people are not just living longer: they are living longer with more complex health needs and conditions, such as frailty. While we welcome spending more time with our loved ones, we also recognise that it can increase pressure on families, on carers and on our health and social care services to support people to have the best possible quality of life.

Improving care for people with frailty

Supporting people with frailty to have the best possible quality of life is becoming increasingly difficult, as there are growing numbers of older people in Scotland who need support: there will be 25% more people age 65 or over by 2029, and almost 80% more people age 75 or over by 2041.

If we want every older person in Scotland to have the best possible quality of life, then we need to start changing how we support people with frailty to live well in their community.

Our support

At Healthcare Improvement Scotland we want to help health and social care services to make changes so more people with frailty can have a better quality of life in their community. This will help to avoid crises that can lead to poor outcomes and increase pressure on families, carers and health and social care services.

We can do this by helping health and social care services to use evidence and quality improvement methods to:

• find people who are becoming frail before they reach crisis point
• have anticipatory care planning conversations with people with frailty to understand their wishes for future care, and
• work with a range of health, social care, third sector, independent sector and housing providers in local areas to support people with frailty to achieve what they want for their future.

Our Living and Dying Well with Frailty Collaborative

If you want to work with us to help people with frailty to have a better quality of life and reduce pressures on individuals and services, then get in touch. We can talk about how you could be part of our Living and Dying Well in Communities improvement collaborative.

To find out more, get in touch by emailing us at hcis.livingwell@nhs.net, calling us on 0131 314 1232 or tweeting us @LWiC_QI.

Looking forward to hearing from you!