Frailty and Interim Care Team
Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership
Who are we?
We are a small team of Speech and Language Therapists (SLT) and an SLT Assistant who work within the Frailty Pathway in Aberdeen City. This includes 6 units at Rosewell (hospital), Hospital at Home (providing hospital level care in a person’s own home), Elderly Care wards at Woodend Hospital and Acute Care at Home (urgent Community referrals). We work as part of the multidisciplinary team including other Allied Health Professionals (such as Dietitians, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists), Nurses, Care Staff and Medical Staff.
Who we work with
We work with frail, often elderly people who have difficulties with their swallowing, their communication, or both. These difficulties can be linked to a number of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Dementia, or may be as a result of an acute illness e.g. delirium, or other infections.
What do we do?
Once difficulties are identified we will assess the person to establish individual eating and drinking advice. We support the individual, as well as care staff, carers and family members to implement this in the most appropriate way. This can include supporting people at the end of their life.
We also assess and support communication, providing therapy when appropriate and also considering alternative supports e.g. providing communication charts and communication partner support. We can refer to the Community SLT service for ongoing or group therapy sessions if this is appropriate.
We also offer staff training and education on both swallowing difficulties and communication.
How to refer?
Patients cannot refer themselves to this service. Please contact your healthcare team if you have concerns about your swallowing or communication.
Rosewell/Hospital at home – Referrals are accepted from Medical, AHP and Nursing colleagues. If you wish to discuss a possible referral, please contact our team on 01224 556926, or gram.citysltfrailty@nhs.scot
Elderly Care at Woodend Hospital – Referrals are accepted from Medical, AHP and Nursing colleagues. If you wish to discuss a possible referral please contact our team on 01224 556732.
Acute Care at Home – Urgent referrals are accepted from GPs and community nursing teams. Please contact gram.citysltadults@nhs.scot or 01224 558377.
