Aberdeen residents are being invited to help shape the future of health and social care services in their own local areas.
The city’s Health & Social Care Partnership is setting up three new Locality Empowerment Groups across the city, which will play a key role in reshaping services and support networks within communities.
Locality Empowerment Groups will be made up of people in the locality who access services themselves or for someone they support.
Each group will, over time, work closely with the local area’s operational delivery team, which is made up of the health and social care practitioners who deliver services and supports.
Aberdeen North, South and Central will each have its own group – led by local people to help ensure health and social care services meet the needs of local populations.
The groups will give local people the chance to put forward ideas to improve health and wellbeing locally and create a better quality of life. The groups will also seek to ensure that as many people as possible in our communities are aware of and able to engage with new plans and proposals for service delivery.
They will also allow citizens to work closely with practitioners to make changes happen in their local communities and have the power to influence new developments.
Health & Social Care Partnership Chief Officer Sandra MacLeod said: ”Health and social care is ever evolving and the people at the heart of the community need to be at the heart of how health and wellbeing can be improved in their area.
“We are on the look-out for people who are committed to community health and wellbeing. We want to work with them to understand communities’ needs better and work out together the best ways to respond in the right place, with the right people and at the right time.”
Integration Joint Board chair Cllr Sarah Duncan said: “Locality Empowerment Groups are a really positive way for local people to directly influence the improvement of health and wellbeing services in the years ahead.
“This is an exciting development, which will provide an important opportunity for us to design the future of health and social care in partnership with local citizens.”
Anyone interested in finding out more can contact ACHSCPTransformation@aberdeencity.gov.uk by 21 February 2020.