Ms Siobh?n McArdle:

A team comprises a range of disciplines, including consultant geriatricians, specialist nursing staff, occupational therapists, social workers and physiotherapists. Once a person is recruited to the team, they immediately begin working to support the individuals in their area. It would not be that they sit and wait until the team is at 100%. They work to maximise what they can do within the staffing arrangement. They work with public health nursing colleagues who work in the primary care teams and the community health network. They also work with colleagues who involved in residential care for older people.

Funding has been committed, and work is ongoing in terms of recruitment. There are some particular specialties in respect of which it is are harder to recruit. All services, whether it is disability services, or older persons services or mental health or primary care, are looking for the same type of trained people. These include dietitians, social workers, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists. Sometimes those disciplines can be harder to recruit for because there are smaller pools of people available. For advanced nurse practitioners, there has been quite a commitment in terms of funding and training to ensure that we have a pipeline of people to come through and fill positions. The HSE assures us that as people are recruited, they begin their work. It is about maximising the staff they have; not waiting until they get to the magic 100%. That is really important. Then there is the target of continuing the funding in order that we get a widespread geographical distribution of these specialist teams across the country.

Specialist community teams also have a really important role in the context of working very closely with local acute hospitals to ensure that they can support diverting of people away from emergency departments. On the other hand, when people are being discharged, they work to support safe discharge, whether that is to home or into residential care. Sometimes, in the context of transitional care beds, they work to give people the interventions that support them to regain and optimise their functions. It is a very new model, and the Deputy referred to some of the research that is emerging. We will be continuing, both in the Department and with our colleagues in the HSE, to evaluate how best to deliver this model over time.