#AgeingWell - Joining a Virtual Improvement Community

People in England can now expect to live for far longer than ever before, but those extra years of life are not always spent in good physical or mental health. Older people are now more likely to live with multiple and complex long-term conditions, or with frailty or dementia. How can we achieve the required improvements set out in the NHS Long Term Plan  to tackle the significant issues that hinder the support for our ageing population? 

Working with the national Ageing Well programme, we in NHS Horizons will be providing support through an improvement community to accelerate and amplify the positive experiences of people living with frailty and long-term conditions. The community will focus on these key areas:

• Enhanced Health in Care Homes
• Urgent Community Response
• Anticipatory Care - working with community teams to proactively support people who have complex needs.

The Community Platform

The improvement community will be encouraged to collaborate, connect and contribute to making a difference for our older people to age well via a virtual platform. Anyone interested, whether they are patients, carers, patient leaders, clinicians, social care workers, service managers, commissioners or other colleagues, will find this a "go to" space to learn and share together.  

30 Day Challenge

This week Helen Bevan, our Chief Transformation Officer at Horizons, facilitated the first #AgeingWell Improvement Community Virtual Forum with Matthew Winn, National Director for Community Health and SRO for Ageing Well. More than 135 registered participants logged in, with many others joining in as teams from a single venue. You can read the key slides and points here. 

During the Forum we launched the first in a series of 30 Day Challenges: To set the Ageing Well community platform alight with case studies that inspire, energise and motivate. 

A 30 day challenge is a time limited series of individual activities that collectively create change. Here are some top tips for designing an ACE 30 Day Challenge:

For everyone working with older people the individual activities over the next 30 days for creating our improvement community are:

1. To join the #AgeingWell community platform by emailing the Ageing Well Team. 

2. To have a look around the platform once you have joined. Browse the conversations, explore the current resources and please comment on at least one item already on the platform

3. To upload your own case study to the database. Case studies do not need to be of academic review standard! The main thing is that the case study has a story of change to share that inspires others, and a set of steps that got you there that others can learn from. Once you have uploaded your case study please share by tagging at least three people, inviting them to read and leave a review.

4. To invite five colleagues to join the platform

Here is a quick guide for uploading your case study:

• Select "Case studies resource database"

• Select the theme that best suits your case study

• Click "Add a new entry"

• Fill in all of the fields with as much detail as you have available. You can populate the case study, upload documents, or link to case studies already on FutureNHS

Other ways to get involved

On the platform you will also find more information on future activities, including:

• A tweet chat on  Tuesday 12th November at 8pm when Matthew Winn will be joining Nikki Kanani for the #PrimaryCareNetworks conversations 
• The next Improvement Community Virtual Forum will be an interactive "Lunch and Share" between 12:00 and 13:30 on Wednesday 27th November 
•  An online event focused on Urgent Community Response from 1.30pm to 3pm on Tuesday December 3rd 

Email the Ageing Well team and get involved today!