Social care content development project

Developments to the SNOMED CT product are enacted at the behest of the SNOMED International Member countries. At their direction and the inclusion of social care by the General Assembly in the 2020-25 strategy, SNOMED International has committed to developing SNOMED CT to support the recording of social care information for individuals and functionality related to the delivery of social care. 

At the request of the General Assembly, SNOMED International commissioned a survey of SNOMED International Members focused on social care and SNOMED CT’s ability to support use cases in this new domain. The resulting report defined social care as “the provision of social work, personal care, protection or social support services to children or adults in need or at risk, or adults with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or poverty”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Care_in_England.)

To begin to explore the content requirements related to social care, the report highlighted the need to gather user requirements and to take stock of work currently underway in Member countries and SNOMED CT content currently in national extensions. The types of services covered by social care were categorised as follows:

From the survey of Members, the highest priority areas for SNOMED CT development in Social Care were identified as follows:

• Services for older people including home care/support, long term care and palliative care focusing across healthcare and social care
• Services for people with mental health problems
• Services for people with alcohol and substance misuse problems