Hospital To Home

An example of a home visit
Photo courtesy of Microsoft Library

Excerpt from new Services Brochure 2009 - 2010

The Hospital To Home Scheme helps people following a stay in Loughborough Hospital and helps to prevent unnecessary hospital re-admissions by providing extra support at home for up to six weeks. Voluntary Action Charnwood is pleased to be working in partnership with the NHS and Adult Social Care to provide this service.

The Scheme is facilitated by a paid co-ordinator who initially visits patients whilst they are still in hospital and following a brief assessment matches them with a volunteer visitor. The patients are referred to the scheme by the hospital’s multi-disciplinary discharge team. People referred to the scheme normally do not require other care services, but may be feeling worried or anxious about going home. The aim of the service is to facilitate early discharge from hospital.

The support offered by the volunteers can smooth the process of settling back into a normal routine and enable people to regain their confidence and sense of independence and general well-being.
The service includes:

• Collecting prescriptions
• Offering companionship
• Assistance with shopping
• Enabling re-introduction to community activities thus reducing isolation
• Other appropriate support by negotiation

The Scheme has increased the number of volunteer visitors this year and has been able to support more patients back home providing over 230 visits during 2008/2009. At the end of the period of support patients are asked to complete a basic survey. Of those who completed the survey 89% rated the overall satisfaction with the service as excellent.

The Hospital To Home scheme looks forward to the coming year and hopes to settle more patients back into their homes. The scheme is actively recruiting new volunteers to enable better matching of volunteers to patients with regard to gender, ethnicity and age.
Scheme volunteers are keen to work closely with other Well-being staff to provide ongoing services that might enable the person to engage in community activities and reduce the risk of isolation and future dependency on health care provision.

For further information please contact Sylvia McLeod on 01509 564218 or sylvia_c@hotmail.co.uk