Community health services cover a wide range of services and provide care for people from birth to the end of their life. Community health teams play a vital role in supporting people with complex health and care needs to live independently in their own home for as long as possible. Services also include health promotion services such as school health services and health visiting services. Many services involve partnership working across health and social care teams, made up of a wide variety of professionals including community nurses, allied health professionals, district nurses, mental health nurses, therapists and social care workers.

Services are mainly delivered in people’s homes (this includes care homes) but also in community hospitals, intermediate care facilities, clinics and schools.

You can find out more about community services on the NHS website here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/community-health-services/what-are-community-health-services/

Most people will be referred to community services if they have a long term condition or after a hospital stay. If you or a family member are admitted to hospital it is worth looking straight away at what plans need to be put in place for their discharge. This may involve community services. You can find support in doing this by speaking with the ward nurses; most hospitals have special discharge teams to help. You can also find more advice here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/care-after-a-hospital-stay/

There are also some community based diagnostic services in Lancashire and South Cumbria. You can find out more about these here: LSC Integrated Care Board :: Community diagnostic centres (icb.nhs.uk)