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Dumfries and Galloway partners in €8.7 million mPower project

An €8.7 million project helping older people manage their own health and wellbeing is set to benefit the region.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway are partners in the new five-year mPower project which was launched in Edinburgh on Thursday.

Supported by European Union funding, it will create a cross-border service for people aged 65 and above with long-term conditions across the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care Partnership are responsible for the delivery of health and social care services within the region.

Wigtownshire Locality Manager June Watters said: “We’re very excited about this new initiative, and the potential it has to boost the work we are already carrying out.

“The launch of this project is a very welcome step, and ties into objectives within health and social care to help people remain healthier longer and living in their own homes.

“We are very actively working towards that goal within Dumfries and Galloway, and very much welcome the launch of this new project in which we will work together towards those aims.
“This new service offers the potential for people to use technology to take care of their own conditions at home.

“And it offers the prospect of GPs and other healthcare professionals potentially being assisted to deliver effective treatment and care in other ways.

“We look forward to working together with the aim of seeing that the people of Dumfries and Galloway benefit as much as possible from this exciting new service.”

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Shona Robison officially unveiled the project in Edinburgh on Thursday.

mPower is funded by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme and managed by the Special EU Programmes Body

And mPower are aiming to empower patients to take control of their conditions at home by using technology while also freeing up GPs and other healthcare professionals so that they can treat more people.

From late 2017 to December 2021, mPower ‘Community Navigators’ will be employed to work with people referred from health and care services to develop wellbeing plans connecting them to activities in their community as well as to new technology to enhance support for health and wellbeing.

And over the course of the project, mPower is intending to support 2500 people through the development of wellbeing plans and 4500 people through eHealth interventions.

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