Hospital services

How can the hospital service help me?

The purpose of Devon Carers Hospital Service is to offer you, the carer, additional support in coping with an admission into hospital, either planned or unexpected. This service looks to address concerns arising from the possible increase in caring responsibilities for you following hospital discharge of yourself or the person that you look after.

What type of support could I be offered?

A Hospital Liaison Worker will offer you 1:1 guidance and advice following the discharge from hospital. They will discuss with you your current situation, what your supporting role entails and what you are finding to be a stress or strain. The Hospital Liaison Worker will be able to look for solutions to help you – they will continue to work with you for up to 6 weeks, re-assessing the situation and the support in place as needed. If either you or the person you care for is re-admitted, they can pause the service until discharge.

Practical support can be put in place for a limited time to ease stress or strain. The team try to be as creative as possible when looking for solutions to help your situation.

Who is eligible?

If you are an unpaid carer, providing unpaid care to another person living in Devon, you can receive support from the Hospital Service Team from the date of admission (or date of referral if there was no admission).
The team can accept referrals:
• Up to 2 weeks before a planned admission, providing there is a date of discharge
• Up to 2 weeks post-discharge
• When someone has attended at A&E, Acute Medical Units or Medical Triage Units
• When the Urgent Community Response, Rapid Response or the Ambulance Service request our input to avoid admission

What happens when my support from Hospital Services ends?

At the end of the hospital service support, you will have a conversation with your support worker. If there is still an appearance of need to support you in your caring role, you will be offered the opportunity for a Carers Assessment which forms part of our core offer to carers.

How can I request help from the service?

If you or the person you care for know you have a planned stay in hospital, or have had a very recent stay in hospital, please get in touch with us:

Email: info@devoncarers.org.uk
Webchat on www.devoncarers.org.uk
Helpline: 03456 434 435