Maximising the potential of reablement

About this guide

This guide is based on research and practice evidence about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of reablement.

The guide is based on:

• SCIE’s Research briefing 36: Reablement: a cost-effective route to better outcomes which was based on a review of research evidence published in December 2010 and practice visits conducted in spring 2010.
• SCIE’s At a glance briefings on reablement examining the implications of reablement for key groups including: GPs, commissioners of adult social care, occupational therapists, reablement providers and families of people using reablement.
• An updated review of relevant effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies, published after SCIE’s ‘Research briefing 36’, plus qualitative research on the views of people using reablement.
• Government advice on funding arrangements for reablement and Department of Health (DH) funded guidance on implementing reablement.
• Practice visits to four reablement teams providing support to people living with dementia.
• The Project Advisory Group, whose role was to review the way the guide was produced and written to ensure it reflected the realities of practice.

Research methodology

Research evidence was drawn from approximately 10 studies (including two randomised controlled trials and two non-randomised controlled trials).

Inclusion criteria:

• Published since January 2011 until November 2012.
• Literature from UK and overseas, where the setting is a developed service infrastructure.
• Controlled evaluations of reablement (or ‘restorative home care’) where the comparison or ‘control’ is domiciliary care and where reported outcomes include: service outcomes such as care hours required and hospital readmission rates; activities of daily living and other scale measures such as ‘timed up and go’; final (quality of life) outcomes.
• Economic evaluations.
• Studies of user and carer views of reablement.