Health Integration Teams attract nearly £4.7 million in 2017-18

Bristol Health Partners Health Integration Teams (HITs) have attracted nearly £4.7 million in funding to the local health system in 2017-18.

Bristol Bones and Joints and the Integrated Pain Management HITs were jointly awarded more than £500k from Arthritis Research UK to develop and evaluate a screening tool for older women with back pain. The tool will be a simple checklist for GPs to identify if the women need an X-ray to diagnose a vertebral fracture.

The Improving Care in Self-Harm (STITCH) HIT was a major partner in the Core24 bid to expand liaison psychiatry services at Southmead Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary to provide overnight cover. NHS England awarded £750,000 for this service extension, which will be managed by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP).

In the IMPROVE HIT, which focuses on perinatal mental health, Dr Rebecca Pearson is leading a project on how mental health is passed on between the generations. This has been awarded £1.3 million funding from the European Research Council. Dr Jonathan Evans has been awarded £250,000 funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to compare psychological treatments for prenatal depression.

The Dementia HIT have secured £146,000 from the local Clinical Commissioning Group for Sirona dementia advisors until March 2019.

Dr Helen Baxter of the Avoiding Hospital Admissions (ITHAcA) HIT was awarded £276,000 for an NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowship focusing on urgent care.

Other awards include:

• £23,488 to the Dementia HIT’s Black, Asian & minority ethnic communities (BAME) study
• £44,571 for the Dementia HIT from South Gloucestershire Council for the Alzheimer’s Society work in South Gloucestershire including dementia support workers
• £50,000 to STITCH HIT and the Sanctuary, which provides weekend support for people in crisis, from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (BNSSG CCG) to extend the service to seven days during the winter
• £20,000 to the Drug and Alcohol HIT from the Economic and Social Research Council to develop materials to encourage needle exchange service users to use low dead space syringes and needles
• £111,121 to the Integrated Pain Management HIT for a feasibility randomised control trial of a fibromyalgia self-management programme in a community setting from the Physiotherapy Research Foundation
• £161,445 again to the Integrated Pain Management HIT for a feasibility trial of using biofeedback to reduce pain for people with osteoarthritis in their knees
• £45,741 for the Active Older People (APPHLE) HIT from Sport England for Active Ageing Bristol to extend roll out of ACE across Lawrence Hill and Filwood, which aims to decrease social isolation and increase physical activity among older people via a buddying system
• £700 for the Psychosis HIT from PolicyBristol and the Centre for Public Engagement to run their Rewriting Psychosis event on 20 January 2018
• £18,600 and £28,000 for two body image projects from the Eating Disorders HIT, involving the University of the West of England, AWP’s eating disorders service STEPS, BNSSG and Gloucester CCGs and South Gloucestershire Public Health
• £9,931 to the Eating Disorders HIT for a new school-based intervention to challenge restrictive gender norms to prevent eating disorders and improve health and wellbeing
• £17,588 again for the Eating Disorders HIT on a project to improve primary care for children and young people with eating disorders
• £100k to the Sexual Health Improvement for Population and Patients (SHIPP) HIT for a PhD project on HPV vaccine in men who have sex with men
• €14k to the SHIPP HIT to look at the challenges and opportunities of anti-HIV medication
• £21k to develop dynamic network models of gonorrhoea transmission, again to the SHIPP HIT
• £764,251 for the Integrated Pain Management HIT on their First Contact Physiotherapy in Primary Care (FRONTIER) evaluation
• £20K to the Supporting Healthy Inclusive Neighbourhood Environments (SHINE) HIT to fund Jess Read’s work refreshing the coundil’s walking strategy

Lisa King, Bristol Health Partners Chief Operating Officer, said:

“This has been another fantastic year for our Health Integration Teams, who have attracted a record breaking £4,676,134 of investment to our local health system. This is a real testament to the hard work and innovation that goes on in our HITs all year round. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to this total – a real achievement for all involved, and an impressive contribution to improving health and care in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.”