When you are, or have been in hospital, there are many things that might make it difficult to get home as soon as you would like to, or that might impact on you when you do get home.
The Hospital Social Prescribing (HSP) Service in Warwickshire, run by Age UK and commissioned by Warwickshire County Council (WCC), helps patients who might be struggling to be discharged due to their home or personal circumstances, are worried about going home, or have been recently discharged and are finding it hard to cope.
The HSP service in Warwickshire aims to support a timely discharge from hospital, reduce the need for further support from health and social care services, and support individuals to avoid hospital re-admission. The service works with customers and carers to increase independence and self-sufficiency by working one-to-one with individuals to identify needs preventing discharge and putting support in place such as accessing local community groups and signposting towards different services and resources.
Simon, a resident in Warwickshire, recently accessed the HSP service for support. He was already known to the service through his mother who was receiving support to return home following a terminal cancer diagnosis. The service helped his mother with the installation of a key safe to allow family, friends, care workers or emergency services to access the property if required. She was also given a lifeline personal alarm so she could easily call for help. This allowed Simon to have a break from his caring responsibilities whilst being reassured that carers could easily access the property and services could be notified quickly if needed.
Following an initial period of support, Age UK will always follow up with an individual or their primary carer. When following up with Simon about his mother, the service sadly discovered that she had passed away and he was finding it difficult to cope. In addition to the trauma of losing his only remaining parent, he had been given an eviction notice from his mother’s landlord to leave the family home. These factors, combined with mental health issues, left Simon struggling with handling responsibilities such as claiming for benefits and responding to the landlord.
On Simon’s behalf, the HSP service made referrals to the appropriate services that could help Simon with his housing problem and support him to claim the benefits he was entitled to.
The HSP service maintained contact with Simon throughout the process to ensure that he was receiving the right support to help him cope better. The service also provided Simon with information about bereavement support to help him come to terms with the loss of his mother. After receiving support from the HSP service Simon said:
“I’m so grateful to you, I didn’t know what to do”.
Fiona Burton, Chief Nursing Officer at South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust said:
“The social prescribing service offers all kinds of support from listening to your worries and discussing your needs about going home from hospital, helping with shopping or collection of prescriptions, signposting to other services, through to accessing free counselling and befriending services.
“Anyone in hospital can access the service. If you care for someone who is due to be discharged from hospital, or they are worried about going home, make sure to speak to hospital ward staff about the social prescribing support available.”
Cllr Margaret Bell, Portfolio Holder for Social Care & Health added:
“I am really pleased to hear that Simon is in a much better place mentally, physically and financially due to the support provided by the HSP service.
“Hospital social prescribing makes a huge difference to the lives of residents in Warwickshire, helping them to be discharged from hospital and continue to lead happy, healthy and independent lives.”
Social prescribing is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.
In social prescribing, local agencies such as local charities, social care and health services refer people to a social prescribing link worker. Social prescribing link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me?’ to jointly produce a simple personalised care and support plan, and support people to take control of their health and wellbeing.
Social prescribing is for anyone but works particularly well for people who:
- have one or more long term conditions
- who need support with low level mental health issues
- who are lonely or isolated
- who have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing
The HSP service in Warwickshire is located at:
- George Elliot Hospital Nuneaton,
- St Cross Hospital Rugby
- Warwick Hospital.
If you are in hospital or you’re visiting or caring for someone in hospital, please advise the ward staff if you would like to speak to someone about the HSP service. If you get home from hospital and then decide you would like some help, you can also contact Age UK to as the HSP team to give you a call.
Further information on hospital social prescribing and more general social prescribing services.