Having many health conditions or seeking support for a mental health condition can mean that you see a variety of health and social care professionals; it can impact on different aspects of your life.
A care coordinator wants to make sure you have the fastest and best-quality service with continuity.
A health professional may have talked to you about a referral to a care coordinator to help support you to manage your health condition or to support someone you are caring for.
Your care coordinator will review your health and care needs and ensure that you are accessing the right care and support. They will coordinate your support across health and social care services and develop a personalised care and support plan which brings all your care and support needs together into one plan.
A care coordinator will support you to be actively involved in managing your health and to make decisions about your care needs and treatment. They will help to coordinate appointments and ensure any information about your health needs is in a format that you can understand. They will support you to make shared decisions about your health and care needs and support you to communicate these choices to other professionals when needed.
Care coordination will:
- Ensure you only have to tell your story once
- Help improve your choice and control over how your care and support needs are met
- Enable you to have a single support plan which identifies all your needs
- Enable better understanding between you and your family and health professionals to support you to better manage your condition
- Help the different people and services that support you to work together in a better way
- Give you a single point of contact for your health and wellbeing needs
- Support shared decision-making between professionals and patients
- Support personal health budgets for people with complex needs
It may include:
- Providing access to information and resources to help you to build your knowledge, confidence and skills
- Liaising with other professionals on your behalf
- Clearly mapping out your story and your needs
- Providing you with links to information that can help with your health journey
- Connecting you to other services in the community
