How long
has the debate around integrated care been going on? It’s a constant theme
running through the social care debate yet one that remains fully unresolved
and one that seems difficult to achieve but why?
It’s not
rocket science!
Take, for
example, the space shuttle. That feat of engineering consisted of 2.5 million
component parts, including more than 200 miles of wiring! Thousands of
scientists, designers, engineers and manufacturers managed to come together to
create a single machine that enabled regular space travel. Even so that would
not have happened without the thousands of others who also played a role. The
astronauts who flew the shuttle were also products of a system that selected,
trained and developed them to ensure they were capable of operating such a
complex machine. Then there were those on the ground who made sure the launch
and landing were successfully achieved.
Yet we
struggle to give individuals the integrated care and support they need!
The
component parts of providing integrated care are considerably less than those
needed for space travel and the cost considerably less!
Yet
bringing together social care, health, housing, benefits and employment for the
benefit of an individual seem to be an impossible task for the bureaucracy of
the U.K.
Obviously
because social care is so low on the bureaucratic pecking order it means that
the other elements needed for integrated care tend to take precedent. Social
care is a small part of the Department of Health and Housing and Benefits sit
within in two other Whitehall departments. At the level of the Whitehall
bureaucracy focus is on departmental achievement and policy formation with
little or no consideration to the individual yet by changing focus to achieving
integrated care for the individual departmental achievement and policy
formation could actually improve.
With the
space shuttle, the goal was achieving manned space travel that could benefit
the space programme by being reusable. All those thousands of people involved
in the project came together to achieve that goal, integrating their role into
that single achievement. Obviously there were disasters yet overall that particular
programme was a success.
Those in
Government should learn that if the goal of social care is the life of the
individual we can begin to make social care the Primary service under which all other elements needed to provide
effective integration are mustered and directed by social care services.
Completely
effective social care means having a fully integrated service whose goal is the
needs of the individual, why is it so hard after all it’s not rocket science.
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