Frailty is a term that is used a lot, but is often misunderstood. When used properly, it refers to a person’s mental and physical resilience or their ability to bounce back and recover from events like illness and injury.
If someone is living with frailty, it doesn’t mean they lack capacity or are incapable of living a full and independent life.
In practice being frail means a relatively ‘minor’ health problem, such as a urinary tract infection, can have a severe long term impact on someone’s health and wellbeing.
This is why it is so important that people living with frailty have access to well-planned, joined-up care to prevent problems arising in the first place – and a rapid, specialist response should anything go wrong.
Frailty isn’t the same as living with multiple long-term health conditions. There is often overlap, but equally someone living with frailty may have no other diagnosed health conditions.
What are we doing to support our frail patients?
We were delighted to welcome Julie Freeman to the Thirsk Doctors’ team in April 2022. Julie is our Frailty-Coordinator. Julie visits frail people in their own homes. She coordinates a comprehensive assessment, considering a plethora of factors for example vision, hearing, mobility, continence, nutrition and falls risk.
Julie works with families, allied health professionals and Social Services. She attends a monthly multi-agency meeting (MAM), along with Dr Robertson, to coordinate care and works with Hambleton Grange and Sowerby House on a weekly basis to enhance care.
Please speak to reception if you would like to know more.