Help Returning Home from Hospital
You may need help at home after a stay in hospital. If you are admitted to Victoria Hospital, or attend the Accident and Emergency Department, and you feel you need help and advice when you leave, you can see a Discharge Co-ordinator.
Before you are discharged from hospital, the nursing staff will ask you if you would like to see a Discharge Co-ordinator, who is a Social Worker. They will talk to you about the help you feel you need when you leave hospital. They may also talk to members of your family, carers, and others who are involved in your care (such as doctors, nurses, occupational therapists etc), so they can build up a picture of the care that you need. This is called an assessment.
Adult Social Care can provide a range of services to help you regain your confidence after your hospital stay. These include:
- Personal care, such as help with getting up in the morning and going to bed at night
- Day care
- Meals on wheels
- Aids and adaptations to the home, such as a handle to make things easier when bathing
- Rehabilitation (for people who need help to get back on their feet after a hospital stay and regain their confidence and independence)
- Social work advice.
Any services you receive will be reviewed by a Community Social Worker. If you continue to need care you will have to have a financial assessment to decide what you will have to pay for the care you receive. There is no charge for short term support for personal care.
The Discharge Co-ordinator can also refer you to the Age Concern Aftercare scheme for short term help with shopping, light household tasks, collecting pensions and prescriptions etc. These services are provided free of charge.
Some people may need to go into a residential or nursing home when they leave hospital. This may be temporary to allow them to recover and for other services to be organised, or it may be permanent. Adult Social Care can help people and their families organise residential or nursing care, or give advice if people prefer to make their own arrangements.