A service to help older people, which is a joint venture between Stirling Council and NHS Forth Valley, has received a national accolade at the Scottish Health Awards 2012 for providing an invaluable contribution to Scottish healthcare.

Stirling Council’s Intermediate Care and Reablement Teams collected the Integrated Care for Older People Award at the prestigious award ceremony in Edinburgh on the 8th November after impressing the judges with their dedication to serving the needs of older people in the local community.

The Intermediate Care services aims to prevent unnecessary admission to hospital and facilitate early hospital discharge and premature admission to residential care, while the Reablement Service is provided to people who are medically fit but need support to maintain their independence.

The training given to support workers is provided through the NHS Forth Valley Stirling REACH (Rehabilitation and Assessment in the Community and at Home) team who are based at Stirling Community Hospital.

NHS Forth Valley Senior Occupational Therapist David Dumbreck, said:

“This is proof that joint working is the way forward. We are keeping people active for much longer and this makes such a difference to their lives.”

Since introducing the project in Stirling there has been a 22 per cent reduction in care needs through the introduction of reablement and 64 per cent of people admitted to intermediate care following hospital discharge now return home at the end of their placement.

NHS Forth Valley Chief Executive Professor Fiona Mackenzie said:

 “I am delighted to hear that staff from NHS Forth Valley are winners and would like to offer my congratulations. These awards are a superb way of saying thank you to those who are always prepared to go the extra mile to help others. Successes like this not only recognise the care we give our patients but also act as an inspiration to colleagues throughout our organisation.”

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil said:

 “Our ambition is to deliver the highest quality of healthcare to the people of Scotland, and these awards give us the opportunity to recognise those individuals and teams who are making an outstanding contribution to that ambition.  All those nominated have gone that extra mile to deliver consistent, reliable and responsive healthcare for everyone.

“Over 250 nominations were received across the 16 award categories.  Many of these were from patients and the public, and all nominations showcased excellent examples how individuals, teams and local NHS systems are working together with patients, families and carers.

“I would like to congratulate the winners and the runners up for their enthusiasm and commitment to improving the quality of care delivered by our NHS which I believe is amongst the best in the world.”

The Scottish Health Awards recognise and reward the commitment and hard work of those who work in and with NHSScotland to provide an outstanding level of care to the public.

For more information on the awards please visit www.scottishhealthawards.com