Lewisham Integrated Neighbourhood Teams - Co-designing with lived experience patients

We are creating Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs), where Lewisham partners are working with the local community to make sure everyone gets the right care, at the right time, and in the right place.

What are Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) and what they want to do

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) are borough partners (health and social care professionals, housing, etc) who work with local people and communities, particularly those with lived experience of the various parts of health and social care services, whether for themselves or for others. The main INTs aims are:

1. Help people stay healthy: INTs focus on preventing health problems before they start, offering help early, and providing care when people need it.
2. Make care work better: INTs want to make sure different health and support services work well together so people don’t have to repeat themselves or feel confused when they need help.

In Lewisham, the initial focus is on long term conditions starting with four cardiovascular (CVD) conditions – atrial fibrillation, hypertension, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.

Following the recruitment of people with lived experience to co-design the service to better support people living with multiple CVD conditions, we held four co-design sessions plus introductory and thank you sessions. The design sessions focussed on; communication with patients, designing a new lifestyle questionnaire, group consultations and designing the approach when patients are discharged. The group has also addressed how to make reasonable adjustments for people with learning disabilities (LD) and serious mental illness (SMI). You can read the full report of the co-design sessions here. We also held a thank you event with all participants at the end and you can read more about that here.

You can read more about the development of neighbourhood health services in Lewisham here.

What is "co-design" and who can join?

Co-design means creating something together with the people who have lived through that experience. We need your help to design how the new health services will work! We join together, share experiences in order to make sure everyone gets the right care. The goal is to keep people healthy, make sure their needs are met, and ensure no one is left behind.

We want to work with our communities and residents. We would like to encourage the following groups to apply:

• People from Black African and Black Caribbean backgrounds
• People with complex health conditions
• People who care for others or are receiving care
• People who feel lonely or isolated
• People with disabilities
• People who don’t have access to the internet or aren’t comfortable using technology
• People over 65 years old
• People with limited money, like refugees