An overview of Livewell Southwest
Livewell Southwest formerly known as Plymouth Community Healthcare is an independent social enterprise, which provides integrated health and social care services for people in Plymouth, South Hams and West Devon. Livewell also provides some specialist services for those living in Devon and Cornwall. Recent acquisitions and mergers have meant that Livewell Southwest is gaining national and international attention for providing a unique range of services in the South West of England.
The organisation officially formed on 1 October 2011 as an independent health services provider. Working as part of the NHS family, the organisation initially provided health services to the Plymouth Community only, but has since taken over the adult social care assessment service from Plymouth City Council and community health services in Kingsbridge, Ivybridge and Tavistock.
To reflect these additional services, Plymouth Community Healthcare changed its name in January 2016 to Livewell Southwest. The new name reflects the operational growth across South Hams and West Devon and reiterates we are here to help people to live well by providing excellent quality care. While our name has changed we remain part of the NHS family and operate under the same ethos: to support people to be safe, well and at home.
Livewell Southwest is committed to fairness, equity, and values diversity in all aspects of its work as a provider of healthcare services and as an employer of people. We constantly strive to ensure services are fully inclusive and accessible, meet the health needs of the local community and seek to build a workforce that is representative of the community it serves.
The organisation across Plymouth is divided into the following localities; North, South, East, West, Urgent care and Citywide with teams based in various sites including Mount Gould, Derriford, Lee Mill, Cumberland Centre, Plympton & Plymstock Clinics, Southway, Estover, Centre Court, Windsor House and Barne Barton. Livewell Southwest also has placements/services based at Ivybridge, Kingsbridge, and Tavistock. Further information about the full list of services we provide can be found on the Livewell website.
Livewell Headquarters
Mount Gould Local Care Centre
200 Mount Gould Road
Mount Gould
Plymouth
PL4 7PY
Phone: 01752 434700
Website: www.livewellsouthwest.co.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/livewellsw
Facebook: www.facebook.com/livewellsouthwest
Student Support Strategy
During your placement at Livewell Southwest, you will be mentored by a key staff member/educator, who will work closely with you and complete your practice assessments. You may also be supported by other team members who will provide feedback to your mentor regarding your progress. Many of our placements use the co-mentoring system and it is possible for you to be allocated to more than one mentor to support you.
As part of your placement, we strongly recommend students arrange time and visits within other Livewell services and teams to broaden placement and learning experience. Our staff encourage all students to take responsibility for their own learning pathway and development, although guidance and support, if required, is willingly provided. Many students gain valuable experiences from spending time with a variety of practitioners; which enables them to develop their skills in interprofessional and integrated practice.
All of our placements are audited regularly in line with NMC standards to ensure they all continue to provide a high quality learning experience. Placement evaluation is a vital part of the audit process and so please ensure you complete the placement evaluation on poppi at the end of your placement and any local evaluation you may be given.
Placements within Livewell Southwest
Livewell is committed to supporting students from all fields of health including nursing (adult, mental health & child), physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology and social work. Generally, students can expect to experience placements within both community and inpatient settings.
However, a flavour of what we provide includes:
- health visiting and school nursing
- general, stroke and neurological rehabilitation
- older people’s mental health – liaison teams, memory and functional pathways
- crisis response teams
- community teams across all fields of nursing and allied health
- acute mental health
- recovery in mental health
- child and adolescent mental health services
- minor injury units
- specialist teams in adult care – respiratory and cardiac rehabilitation, contraception and sexual health, tissue variability, infection control, continence and Parkinson’s disease, continuing healthcare, long term conditions teams; hospital discharge teams
- specialist teams in mental health – community forensic team, asylum seekers and refugees, drug and alcohol service.
Role of Placement Development Team
Within Livewell Southwest, you will find the concept of the placement development team (PDT) firmly embedded. The placement team consists of clinical/practice placement lead/manager for Livewell and a team of academic staff from the university. Practice lead and academic staff work in partnership to prepare mentor/educators for students as well as be available for the support of any student/placement concerns and queries regarding practice and assessment. You will find the same structure of placement support is available across all the organisations within the South West. However, the presence of the PDT does not deflect from your personal tutor and they are obviously still available for support if needed whilst in practice.