September 28, 2026
The Chair of Causeway Hospital’s Partnership Board has praised a “radical rethink” around the delivery of health and social care services for people living in the Northern Trust area.
Kathy Mackenzie, a Non-Executive Director at the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, made the remarks following a presentation from Trust staff on the shift towards a Neighbourhood Model of Care, at a meeting of the Partnership last week.
Members heard how the Trust is working closely with primary care, community and social care teams, and the community and voluntary sector to establish four integrated neighbourhood teams across the Trust which will provide early intervention and prevention to keep people well in their own homes.
Diane Spence, Director of Adult Community and Older People’s Services, said: “We want to develop a proactive and integrated approach to keeping people well in their own homes so we can help people avoid a hospital stay and reduce reliance on our acute services.
“We know that a hospital stay does not always produce the best outcome, particularly for our older population, so we want to strengthen care pathways in our community settings and create multidisciplinary teams that can support service realignment and the shift towards a Neighbourhood Model.”
As winter approaches, the neighbourhood teams will be focussed on supporting older people and four workstreams have been identified:
• establishing a care home support team to help with management of falls in the care setting, avoiding unnecessary conveyance to an Emergency Department
• strengthening our Hospital at Home service
• creating education and clinical pathways in the community around diabetes management
• exploring how our Causeway multidisciplinary team, alongside GP colleagues, can provide enhanced support to people in the community
Praising the work, Kathy Mackenzie said: “Every year we do what we always do, but this is a radical rethink and approach to integrated care, and it will hopefully make a huge difference.”
Speaking on behalf of service users, Thelma Dillon, Chair of the Trust’s Engagement Advisory Board, described it as “an excellent development”.
“This is about bringing the right expertise to people in their own homes and building relationships and trust with our community. There are real opportunities here to have an integrated, joined up approach,” she added.
The Causeway Hospital Partnership Board was established in September 2024 to drive progress on and delivery of the Trust’s Vision for Causeway.
It is co-chaired by Non-Executive Director Kathy Mackenzie and the Trust’s Director of Operations Gillian Traub who paid tribute to Ms Mackenzie following news of her retirement and stepping down from her role as NED and co-chair.
Ms Traub said: “We are all very grateful for the work Kathy has done across so many areas. As a local resident and member of the Causeway community, she stepped forward and led us through change and challenge, showing great leadership.”