independence related prevention examples and research

Hospital 2 Home Leicestershire

Royal Voluntary Service

Hospital 2 Home Leicestershire provides low level practical support for people returning home from hospital after illness, surgery or accident. The service aims to ensure people achieve full rehabilitation and regain independence, whilst also enabling quicker discharge from hospital.

Wigan Community Link Worker Scheme

NHS Wigan Borough Clinical Commissioning Group

The Wigan Community Link Worker service provides person centred support that enables individuals to access community activities keep them independent, whilst taking greater control of their health and wellbeing, and connecting them to their communities. The service was jointly commissioned by Wigan Borough Clinical Commissioning Group and Wigan Council with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of local people through better connections to appropriate sources of support in the community. Initially piloted in 2015, run by City Health Care Partnership (CHCP), with 11 practices the service has grown and now covers the whole Borough (63 practices). In March 2016, funding for the service was extended for a year.

Tower Hamlets Reablement Service

Tower Hamlets London Borough Council

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets provide a multidisciplinary, short-term Reablement service to all adults over 18 in the borough who may have lost confidence, skills or independence following an accident, ill health, a disability or a stay in hospital. The service aims to enable people to relearn life skills, to rebuild their confidence, to facilitate and consolidate their existing abilities and build on their own resources and to enable and promote a healthy lifestyle that is relevant to the individual. This can lead to a reduction or absence in long-term support needed, thereby reducing long-term costs.

Support at Home

British Red Cross

British Red Cross (BRC) Support at Home services offer short-term practical and emotional support at home to help people regain their independence following a stay in hospital. Evaluations of Red Cross preventative services have found that these services improved the quality of life for people who use services, contributed to cost savings and a reduction in use of formal/informal care.

Report on the DFG summit: hosted by the College of Occupational Therapists and Foundations in December 2015

ASTRAL PUBLIC SERVICES
2016

A summary of the main points raised at the Disabled Facilities Grant summit together with some apposite case studies showing what works well now. Disabled facilities grants are a national housing grant available to adults and children with a disability to facilitate access to and within the property. The grant is available to all owner occupiers, private and housing association tenants subject to a statutory means test. The meeting discussed five key questions about DFGs and their context within the wider theme of people remaining independent in the community, regardless of their means. The questions are: what works well in current practice; how to improve customer service; how to support self-funders; how to collaborate better with other services; and how to redesign services for the future. The document closes with major themes that emerged from the day together with some key recommendations of what can be changed nationally and locally to advance collaborative systems, prevention and DFG regulations.

Safe and Well

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

Safe and Well is the Assistive Technology Programme with which Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council aims to improve the outcomes for its citizens, supporting them to live independently at home, while also reducing its social care costs. It has consisted of 3 pilot projects to date, working with adults with learning and physical disabilities; nursing and residential homes and early intervention with adults not yet eligible for funded social care. Blackburn has moved from supporting 60 people to over 1900 people with assistive technologies.

Prevention in Bexley

London Borough of Bexley

The London Borough of Bexley is currently supporting different groups of people using a prevention approach: promoting citizenship for adults with learning disabilities; following a community-based recovery model in mental health day services and providing an integrated reablement service to enable older people to regain their independence and stay in their homes for longer.

Living, not existing: putting prevention at the heart of care for older people in Wales

ROYAL COLLEGE OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS
2017

This report focuses on the important contribution that occupational therapists can make to support further integration of health and social care in Wales. It looks at the role of occupational therapy in helping older people to remain independent and live in their own communities for as long as possible, preventing or delaying the need for expensive care long-term. The report focuses on three key areas: prevention or delaying the need for care and support; helping older people to remain in their communities; and ensuring equality of access to occupational therapy. It provides recommendations to improve the design and delivery of services and examples of best practice and individual case studies to how occupational therapists can contribution to integrated, person-centred services. These include for occupational therapists to work more closely with general practitioners, take on leadership roles to provide expertise to community providers on the development of person and community centred services; and the development of formal partnership agreements across local housing, health and social care sectors to ensure all older people have access to occupational therapy services.

The bigger picture: policy insights and recommendations

LLOYD James
2014

This report evaluates the performance of government policy on care and support of older people who struggle with day-to-day activities in England during the period 2011 to 2013, using the data and insights from ‘The bigger picture: understanding disability and care in England’s older population’. Part 1 of this report examines the reach of publicly funded support; the unmet need in the older population; and variation and consistency of care and support. Part 2 considers the implications of the Care Act implementation and looks at policy development beyond 2016, focusing on eligible needs after the Act, financial eligibility and the means test after 2016 and mapping, identifying and engaging older population groups. The report concludes that given the feasibility and budget challenges implied by the sheer numbers of older people experiencing difficulties with activities of daily living, a rethink and revolution is required among national and local policymakers around how individuals and families are engaged and supported. This will mean revisiting the balance between consistency and variation in services organised by local authorities, as well as fully integrating and exploiting the different ‘touch points’ and ‘gateways’ available for engaging the older population. It will also mean evaluating which aspects of the vision of the Care Act need to be fulfilled by local authorities directly, or can be devolved to empowered, third-party charities and organisations at a local level.

Quick guide: health and housing

NHS ENGLAND
2016

This is one of a series of quick, online guides providing practical tips and case studies to support health and care systems. It provides practical resources and information for Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) from a range of national and local organisations on how housing and health can work together to prevent and reduce hospital admissions, length of stay, delayed discharge, readmission rates and ultimately improve outcomes. Specifically, the guide describes: how housing can help prevent people from being admitted to hospital – by enabling access to home interventions (social prescribing), improving affordable warm homes (safe, warm housing), improving suitability and accessibility, and providing housing support; how housing can help people be discharged from hospital – through coordination of services, provision of step down services, and accessible housing design; and how housing can support people to remain independent in the community – by enabling informed decisions about home and housing options, providing assistive technology and community equipment, supporting social inclusion, providing supported housing, and promoting healthy lifestyles.