The Proactive Care Team, known as PACT, is now operating in the town.
Led by Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, the team offers short-term support to adults with complex longer-term health problems.
The initiative brings together nearly a dozen professional services – covering physiotherapy, mental health, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy, plus specialist Admiral dementia care nurses, palliative care nurses, healthcare assistants and advanced practitioners, a dietician, pharmacy technician and personal support navigator.
Working with partners including GPs, primary and secondary care providers, social services, Dementia UK and the voluntary care sector, the team aims to address unmet needs and reduce duplication.
Its services are now available for patients aged over 18 registered with Farfield and Holycroft surgeries, Kilmeny Group Medical Practice and Ling House Medical Centre.
PACT team leader, Amanda Whitley, says: “Our team helps individuals to live well and manage their health conditions effectively, so they can avoid unnecessary GP appointments, unplanned hospital admissions or Accident and Emergency visits.
“Our approach is anticipatory and preventative, and acknowledges the interrelationship of mental and physical health.
“We encourage self-referrals as well as proactively seeking out patients who are over or underusing other health services.
“Once we have accepted a referral, we carry out a holistic, patient-centred assessment and then create a tailored and co-ordinated healthcare plan for each individual, delivered by a mix of professionals in one community team.”
PACT was initially established in central Bradford in 2020, as a Reducing Inequalities in Communities project.
The intention was to tackle health inequalities in the city’s most deprived areas, where healthy life expectancy was significantly below average.
Amanda adds: “This way of working has proved efficient and effective in central Bradford.
“We’re so pleased we have been able to expand, so that people in Keighley with the greatest need can benefit from the PACT service.”
The PACT team has won a number of awards.
In 2023, it received the Team of the Year accolade – in recognition of delivering frontline services – at the Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership Celebrate as One Awards.
Last year, in tribute to its work in Bradford, the team won the Excellence in Primary Care and Community honour at the NHS Parliamentary Awards.
And it was a finalist in the Integrated Approaches to Care category of the Nursing Times Awards.