A FAST track system to cut red tape and get help to vulnerable adults in Thurrock who need it urgently has been outlined by the borough's corporate director of adults and housing.

Ian Wake spoke to members of Thurrock Council's health and wellbeing board and gave details of a new integrated health and wellbeing strategy called 'Better Care Together Thurrock'.

The scheme is aimed at adults dealing with health and wellbeing services and how the services can be streamlined to make them more effective.

Currently people who have issues they need help with can often go through a number of separate organisations without getting the help they need.

Mr Wake used a case study to explain how that can impact individuals going through a "top-down fragmented process which he said is ultimately more expensive.

Describing how he accompanied an occupational therapist, Mr Wake said: "This occupational therapist received a call to go and see a 60-year-old gentleman living in a one-bedroom flat in Chadwell St Mary. His underlying problem is alcohol addiction and mental health but we can't seem to solve the problem.

"Owen had lost his wife two years ago. He'd always drunk heavily but since her death his drinking had spiraled out of control and he'd become seriously depressed. He was actually drinking five bottles of wine a day."

Mr Wake added: "When we arrived at the flat Owen was slumped in a chair, sitting in a pool of his own urine. The only word I can use to describe him is broken. He was conscious but almost completely uncommunicative. He was grunting. He just looked so sad. He was clearly under the influence of booze even though it was only 10.30am."

Mr Wake went on to describe a fruitless attempt to get immediate help for the man from various organisations and eventually the only option was to call an ambulance.

The new system would see a number of professionals coming together to tailor-make a solution for him with one named co-ordinator interacting with Owen.

Mr Wake said: "We need to stop seeing people as a series of problems that we've defined and we need to empower our frontline staff. We need to free them from the constraints of the terms of service specifications and allow them to respond in that human way."