Helping you connect with your community

To help people make informed choices and find solutions to their needs which are not reliant on services, we have created a team of people called Local Area Coordinators or ‘LACs’.

This initiative led by Public Health, works in partnership with other health professionals, adult social care, police and fire services, and those in other community roles such as Care Navigators. Their role is to support people to develop and use personal and local networks to connect them with community life, enabling them to understand how and where to find support and services in the right place and at the right time, thereby reducing isolation and giving them the tools and confidence to plan for the future.

They work with:

• Those who are already dependent on services to help them build personal connections, community contribution and reduce their reliance on formal services
• People of all ages, but quite often with those who may be unknown to, or ineligible for services or those at risk of crisis or dependency on services
• Those with physical and learning disabilities, mental health needs, older people and their families/carers

Since mid- 2015, nine Local Area Coordinators have been put in place. They have already worked with hundreds of people and have made a real difference to their lives:

• giving them confidence and control
• connecting them with their community and reducing feelings of isolation
• reducing unnecessary visits to GPs
• reducing the length of time spent in hospital

You can watch a short video below to see just what a different the local area coordinators are making to people's lives on the Island.