SUPPORT

Helping families cope with ageing relatives is a new service called 'Support' offered by The Private Health Partnership, (PHP), the Yorkshire-based specialist health insurance advisers. This unique service provides immediate help and advice for people suffering a chronic health condition or disability, and enables the individual and their family to make decisions about their longer-term care based on independent, expert advice that takes into account their concerns as well as their preferences.

'Support' is a 'use it when you need it 'service that provides prompt assessment of care needs. This assessment is usually done in the individual's own home by a community nurse, occupational therapist or specialist nurse, depending on the circumstances. The prompt intervention means that health conditions can be addressed at an early stage, maximising the ability to live independently at home, and avoiding the delays of the State system which has to focus on priority cases.

The service can also be used by families where a relative's condition is well advanced, perhaps suggesting the need for residential or nursing home care, or where a chronic condition such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, MS or Alzheimer's is causing real distress, and where emotional support becomes as important as medical treatment.

'Support' costs a one-off payment of £475 and entitles the user not only to the special home visit, but access to the following ongoing assistance package for a period of 12 months after the home visit has been completed:

• Priority Helplines providing unlimited ongoing advice 24 hours/365 days a year
• A personal nurse adviser acting as case manager
• Detailed Care Plan with options
• Guidance on aids and adaptive equipment
• Advice on independent living
• Access to equipment suppliers, together with information about suitability and costs.

Jan Lawson, Managing Director of PHP, describes the service as, "Point of Need" for people who face the problem of sorting out care requirements. Mostly the problem is, knowing where to go for help and advice, what questions to ask and what you are entitled to. 'Support' also recognises the increasing awareness that we have to take more responsibility for our own health and welfare at a time when the state system is not always able to cope."