One size fits none, watch your language, and keep pondering...

Insights from the Integrated Community Care to Promote Healthy Ageing event

Posted by Hamdi Hamzah, Research and Evaluation Coordinator with NECS Research & Evidence

It was my first time attending an event that saw people (some of us dressed in red) from across different professions – academics, healthcare professionals, voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE) professionals and members of the public – come together to share common interests and explore future opportunities or collaborations.

Being new to the health and social care sector and a career changer with experience working with large corporations through strategic human resource roles, the Integrated Community Care to Promote Healthy Ageing event co-hosted by Fuse introduced something that I felt was closer to what was happening on the ground, especially when research and practice interweave. From this event, I have identified seven insights that I felt were worth sharing.

But first... what exactly is Integrated Care? The NHS England website describes Integrated Care Systems as: “…partnerships of organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, and to improve the lives of people who live and work in their area.” They also provide a helpful video explainer.

So, on to my magnificent seven:

1. There is no “one-size fits all” approach to care

Throughout the event, this was a common theme from both presenters and attendees, who continued to stress the importance of putting individual needs at the forefront in providing care. To echo Dr Bethany Bareham (pictured right), Fuse Associate and NIHR fellow at Newcastle University through her talk on providing support to older adults with co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems, support for one individual may not be needed for someone else.

2. Similarly, there is no one way to answer a research question

The event brought together different questions, methods and groups of people to enhance our understanding of promoting healthy ageing. For example, a video presentation by Dr Vanessa Davey, a Research Associate at Newcastle University, on the feasibility of developing a data set in care homes to assist in care delivery and commissioning decisions was eye-opening. You might think that digital GP records could readily be used in one form or another to build this data set, but it is clearly not that straightforward as data from other systems, namely social care, could (and should) provide additional insights into this dataset. Most importantly, while we might take different approaches and target different populations, we are all aiming towards achieving the same goal.

3. Language can have an important effect on how we approach a question

Simply put, are we talking about the same thing? We might think that the terminologies that we are using are similar but they could mean different things to different people. For example, Dr Dan Cowie (pictured right), clinical lead with the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Ageing Well Network (who also spoke about the Frailty iCARE platform) posed the question: are "personalised care," "personhood" and "person-centred" the same thing for the groups of people that researchers are interested in studying? How we phrase the topic we are researching could also help or hinder what we get out of our work.

4. Co-production of research through VSCE organisations

Local communities should be involved in every activity within the research lifecycle, such as research planning, analysis and dissemination, and not just during the delivery stage of the study – an opinion shared by Greta Brunskill from Voluntary Organisations' Network North East (VONNE) in one of the workshops. Patient and public involvement (PPI) is a useful platform to involve members of the public and co-produce research, but there is the risk of “professionalising” these platforms, which may lead to voices from certain communities not being heard.

5. But what about before we reach a specific age?

There was interest from the audience in exploring personal and environmental factors before someone even reaches a specific age. The idea of testing the impact of, for instance, universal basic income among young people on healthy ageing was food for thought and suggests that a lot of where we are now or – perhaps will be in the future – could depend on factors in the present such as lifestyle, socioeconomic status and access to relevant services.

6. Addressing health inequalities remains challenging

Expanding on points 4 and 5 above, health inequalities remain a hot topic in this field of work. Access to care, health literacy (a person’s ability to understand and use information to make decisions about their health), personal qualifications and involvement of underserved communities were mentioned by attendees either during the talks or workshops as challenging areas. Introducing care or support may not work if barriers to accessing care remain.

7. Keep pondering

The entire event not only provided the opportunity to know what research is being conducted but showed the tremendous volume of research questions left to be explored! One of the themes that came out of Tania Jones' workshop on maximising the use of pharmacy services was the bigger role that they may play in primary care, especially in 2026 once pharmacy graduates enter the job market with prescribing qualifications. This could in turn lead to more questions, for example, is there an inclination for pharmacists to prescribe pharmaceutical over non-pharmaceutical treatments?

While the possibilities are endless, identifying questions that are crucial and impactful may be the first step to starting a research journey and finding the right collaborators. Regardless, we should continue to think about things that we are working on, as Lesley Bainbridge (pictured right), clinical lead in the NENC Ageing Well Network, quite aptly put it, "Some of the best research questions come from what we ponder."

Images: provided with thanks to NHS NECS Research & Evidence Team