About LINkrotherham

LINkrotherham was launched on 23rd October 2008 and is a completely independent way for the people of Rotherham to express their opinions on local health and social services and influence how these services are delivered.

LINkrotherham is a network of local people, organisations and community groups.

The job of a LINk is to find out what people like and dislike about local services and to work with the people who plan and run them to help make them better.
 

Issues and concerns

LINkrotherham is currently working on the following projects.  If you would like more information please contact a member of the LINk Support Team.

Laughton Common
Laughton Common is a small but growing village near Dinnington.  The area does not have many local facilities and people have to travel to Dinnington or the surrounding area to access GP and Dental services.  The Laughton Common TARA (Tenants and Residents Association) and LINk have been working together to carry out a piece of research to determine whether Laughton Common now justifies some form of GP and/or Dental provision within the village.  LINkrotherham will be meeting with NHS Commissioners and Service Providers in late July to discuss this situation.
 
Macmillan Health and Wellbeing Pilot
LINkrotherham has worked with Voluntary Action Rotherham, Macmillan and Rotherham Hospital to host six informaiton events around the borough.  These enabled women recovering from breast and gynaecological cancers to find out about services and support available to them.  Volunteers were also trained to offer a one to one service to women who needed addtional support. 
 
Personalisation Brokerage Research
In partnership with Adult Services Consortium, LINkrotherham commissioned a research project investigating whether there is a need for a brokerage service in Rotherham to assist people with finding health and social care support.   The research proved that there is a need for this service and an on-line service is currently being developed and tested with partner agencies.
 
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services
Local deaf and hard of hearing groups contacted LINkrotherham to tell us they were having problems when attending the Out-Patients Department at Rotherham Hospital.  Working alongside the hospital our members talked to deaf and hard of hearing patients about their experience of services.  The outcomes formed a report which was then submitted to the hospital.  We have now agreed an action plan with the hospital who will be making changes to their service.
 
After working with the deaf community we identified other areas where services could be improved.  One of these areas was cancer awareness.  Working with partners LINkrotherham held a women only cancer awareness session in March 2011.  A men only session is planned for late 2011.
 
GP Patient Involvement
The way that health services are delivered will be changing over the next few years.  Patients will have more say over their treatment and where they access services.  We have been working with 2 GP's in Rotherham who are keen to involve their patients more in the surgery but have been unable to.
 
 LINk members visited the surgeries to find out what patients wanted, the results were then shared with the surgeries who are now in the process of setting up a suitable patient involvement group.  LINkrotherham will continue to work with these surgeries.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter
LINkrotherham has recently worked with Rotherham Heart Support Group and the North Trent Network of Cardian Care to provide a heart awareness event.  70 people attended this very popular event.  The event was so successful that we have decided to hold similar events on different themes.

If you would like any more information about any of the above projects, please contact LINk Support Worker