We will support as far as possible individual care pathways with a focus on prevention, self-care and early intervention.
The first Shetland Living Well Hub opened in Brae in November 2021, offering a drop-in service for anyone who needs to find out more about local health and social care support options. It was part of the roll out of the Community Led Support (CLS) programme in Scotland, aiming to link communities with health and social care services in a way that people might find easier to access.
Following on from the success of the first hub, a second Living Well Hub was opened in Scalloway in April 2022.
The Community Led Support (CLS) approach aims to make contact with people and have a ‘good conversation’ about what matters to them, and what they would like to see happening in their lives. Hub workers are skilled in helping people and will have local knowledge of different types of support available.
Conversations focus on questions such as ‘What do you want to be doing?’, ‘What is really important in your life?’, ‘Who are the right people to help?’, ‘What is here in your community’, ‘What is working well?’ and ‘What matters to you?’
The overarching strengths based ethos is a focus on “What’s strong not what’s wrong”.
There has been national interest in Shetland’s approach with outcomes presented at various conferences.
The difference made is that everyone who has visited or contacted one of the hubs has left feeling a sense of direction, they have been listened to, they have been valued and appreciated, they are more informed, they have been part of a conversation and not an assessment, there are possibilities and they are more knowledgeable about their community and the support available.
An evaluation of the service will be undertaken in 2023.
