Civica, a market leader in specialist systems and business process services that help organisations transform the way they work, is supporting an increasing number of health and social care providers across the UK as they respond to the imperative for community care services to work seamlessly together.

Building on the foundation of Civica’s integrated electronic patient record (EPR) and case management system, Paris, health service organisations and local authority partners have established exemplar programmes in the management of integrated care and improved patient services.

These include the Western Bay Substance Misuse Area Planning Board in Wales and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board working with both Cardiff City and the Vale of Glamorgan Councils.

To support the Welsh Governments Substance Misuse Strategy for Wales, The Western Bay Substance Misuse Area Planning Board (on behalf of City and County of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot Council, Bridgend County Council and the ABMU Health Board) has set up a single referral point and a multidisciplinary Integrated team utilising Civica’s Paris solution for all Substance Misuse referrals across the three counties.

Commenting on this, Carol Rea Vice Chair of the Western Bay Substance Misuse Area Planning Board and Head of Adult Services in the City and County of Swansea said: “There are now a number of different agencies and tiers of treatment which share a common Care Management record with unified business processes, all of which has been enabled by the use of the Paris Database.

“This sharing of records has allowed us to introduce a single point of entry to support and treatment services via ABMU Alcohol & Drug Assessment Service. Instead of multiple assessments with different agencies, there is now a single comprehensive assessment with the multidisciplinary team which reduces duplication and waiting time so that people get the support they need when they need it.”

Cardiff & Vale University Health Board has further extended its comprehensive use of Civica Paris so that the full scope of health and social care teams now hold and share a single CMHT e-record.

This has been particularly useful for its adult community health teams, as Darren Shore, mental health crisis service manager describes: “I’ve been working in mental health for over 30 years, and Paris has been, without a doubt, the most important and beneficial thing that’s ever happened to us.”

David Roots, managing director, health and social care, Civica adds: “The integration of health and social care services is increasingly seen as an essential means of meeting the demands of continually improving care in the community whilst facing the challenges of cutting costs and an ever-changing demographic of service users. This pressure is not going to relent so it’s encouraging to see organisations merging or working together to develop patient-centric processes and share data with the clear objective of improving care in the community.”