149 Community linkworker support within specialist palliative care team in Gateshead

<h3>Background</h3> Social prescribing is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing. In four of the five Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Gateshead, this service is provided by Edberts House, an embedded local community charity. Research, based in Gateshead, demonstrates that social welfare legal needs are prevalent towards end of life, creating significant difficulties for both patients and carers. However navigating this complex and fragmented system is very challenging.¹ Community link workers could potentially help navigate these challenges however they are seldom utilised to support palliative patients. In Gateshead just 0.7% of patients on the palliative care register were referred for community link worker support. We therefore conducted a pilot of a jointly funded (NHS charity/LA) post of a parttime (0.5 FTE) community linkworker based within the specialist palliative care team in an attempt to enhance the impact of this role. <h3>Method</h3> We used a mixed methods approach to evaluate the impact of this role including activity, types of support provided and impact using the validated How are you (HAY) assessment tool. A visual tool used to help the patient to focus on the area that bothers them most to prioritise support scoring 0–5. <h3>Results</h3> In the first 6 months, 35 patient contacts were made for a range of types of support including money, housing and family, health, social connections, emotional wellbeing. Initial assessment showed that these were significant issues for patients with physical health scoring highest (3.59), closely followed by emotionally wellbeing (3.36). <h3>Conclusion</h3> Whilst physical needs are a frequent concern there are also practical, social and emotional needs have a significant impact on our patients and are more often under addressed. Community linkworker support within the specialist palliative care team can offer a very valuable way to enhance quality care in identifying and addressing these needs. <h3>Reference</h3> Colette Hawkins*, Amy Wheatman, David Black, Alexis Pala, Yu Fu, Tomos Robinson, Jonathan Ling, Sarah Gorman, Sarah Beardon, Hazel Genn, Hannah Hesselgreaves. Meeting social welfare legal needs in end-of-life care: co-creation of a system-wide research partnership. <i>Health and Social Care Delivery Research</i> 2024:1–21. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3310/ygra9852.