OLDER PEOPLE SERVICES Services are delivered throughout the Foyle area by teams of Social Workers, Nurses and other health care professionals working in each of five localities - Waterside, Cityside, Shantallow, Limavady and Strabane. The overall aim is to provide practical support and professional input to enable people to retain their dignity and independence and to live in their own communities for as long as possible. Day Care Centres, Home Help/Home Carer Services and domiciliary support packages secured in partnership with the voluntary and private sector play a major part in enabling older people to remain in their own homes. Where a person’s condition or circumstances means that this is no longer possible, hospital based Continuing Health Care Services are available to meet the needs of those who have been assessed as requiring substantial medical and nursing care support. Services are also available from the Trust’s own Residential Homes for Older People or from a broad base of independent sector residential and nursing homes. Specialised nursing units are available for the care, treatment and residence of people who are elderly, frail or infirm and some of whom are suffering from varying levels of senile dementia. A Memory Service is provided for assessment and early diagnosis of Dementia, providing treatment, medication and care pathway to the Dementia Team for people with memory impairment. In partnership with Fold Housing Association, Trust staff delivering dementia services operate from a purpose built residential complex in Waterside, Londonderry. Other more recent initiatives supported by the Western Health Board’s Northern Sector Local Health and Social Care Group include the establishment of an intermediate care team and a chronic disease management team. Both teams have been established to support people in their own communities.