Scheme provides a healthy boost for people in East Barnwell

Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) used a Cambridge City Council grant to provide an ‘advice on prescription’ outreach service at East Barnwell Health Centre.
 
The idea behind the service, which started in May of last year as a pilot scheme, is to offer people visiting the centre for a health appointment the opportunity to meet with a CAB adviser if it is thought they may benefit from additional help.
 
GPs and health providers know that some of their patients have health and social care problems. Often these are associated with debt, housing, employment and other welfare matters and may be causing their health to deteriorate.
 
Anyone registered with the health centre can be referred by its staff to the CAB adviser and the aim is to reach out to vulnerable people who may otherwise find it difficult to access CAB services.
 
Since 1 April, a CAB adviser has carried out more than 80 appointments with local residents giving help and guidance on a range of issues such as the benefits to which they are entitled and how to manage debt.
 
The adviser has also helped to point people to other specialist advice on employment matters, switching energy suppliers, accessing housing advice and charitable support.
 
People who have received CAB advice have said that since seeing the CAB adviser they have felt less worried about their circumstances and hadn’t felt the need to see their GP as often.
 
The success of the scheme in East Barnwell, which is estimated to have resulted in a total financial gain of more than £100,000 for local people, has meant that it is now to be extended by CAB.
 
Nuffield Road Medical Centre will now run the outreach scheme and it is also to be operated from Arbury Road Surgery (advice will be provided from the Meadows Community Centre, which is also open to any resident) and at Trumpington Surgery (advice will be provided at Trumpington Pavilion).
 
Funding for the pilot scheme was approved by the council because it directly contributes to its Anti-Poverty Strategy objectives of helping people on low incomes to maximise their income and minimise their costs and of breaking the link between health and poverty.
 
Cllr Richard Johnson, Chair of Cambridge Local Health Partnership, said: “This scheme shows that close working between local GPs and Cambridge CAB has made a real difference to local people whose health can be affected by worry about debt, family breakdown, employment troubles and other non-medical matters.
 
“The fact that many vulnerable people are now in receipt of benefit entitlements that they weren’t claiming before and feel that their health has been improved from the alleviation of some of the pressures they were facing, is a testament to the value of timely and appropriate advice provided by trained advisers from Cambridge CAB.
 
“The scheme is an important part of our Anti-Poverty Strategy and I am pleased that more people will be able to benefit from the extension of this project.”
 
Rachel Harmer, GP and Chair of the Local Commissioning Group, CAM Health, said: “We are pleased to be involved with this project and to offer a space within East Barnwell Health Centre as a base, and to offer the support of our staff in its running.
 
“Local GPs and other staff are under considerable pressure and having the opportunity to refer patients who might benefit from talking to a trained adviser, based within the practice, is helpful because it provides us with another tool that may contribute to improving the wellbeing of our patients.”
 
Rachel Talbot, Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge CAB, said: “The ‘advice on prescription’ approach has been proven to work elsewhere in the country and was something that we were keen to put in place in Cambridge.
 
“Patients seeing their local GPs usually had other contributing factors that would affect their wellbeing, such as worry about debt, and having a trained adviser next door meant that they were far more likely to attend an appointment.
 
“We think the pilot is going exceptionally well and are pleased to be able to roll it out to other localities this year and are grateful for the support of CAM Health, the Local Health Partnership and Cambridge City Council in making this a reality.”
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