Carers Hospital Service
Support for family and friends providing unpaid for someone following an admission into Derriford Hospital.
About the Hospital Service
The purpose of the Carers Hospital Service is to offer additional support to you 'Unpaid Carer' following a hospital admission for either yourself or a loved one.
The service looks at ways of offering support with your caring role following the discharge of yourself or person that you offer support and care for. The service can also help to assist a successful discharge as well as preventing re-admission.
This can be practical support, emotional support, providing information or helping to navigate services to ensure both you and the person you care for are safe and you, the Carer are able to continue caring in a safe environment and situation.
Please be aware that the hospital service is not based at Derriford Hospital, however through our experienced hospital liaison workers, who attend each week on a Monday and Thursday, we are able to pick up any referrals on our ward rounds.
As well as that, if you or the person you care for have a planned stay in hospital, or have had a very recent stay in hospital, please get in touch with us on the below information.
What support can be offered?
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 caring role entails and what you are finding to be a stress or strain on your wellbeing.
The Hospital Liaison Worker will be able to look for solutions to help you. They will continue to work with you for up to 3 weeks, depending on the level of interventions needed. The team try to be as creative as possible when looking for solutions to ease your current situation. We offer a person centered holistic service with the Carer being the centre of everything we do.
The practical support that can be implemented for a limited time to help to ease your stress or strain. These may include interventions as below:
- Delivery of meals
- Cleaning and home-help, shopping, or support with setting up online shopping
- Transport to and from appointments
- Sittting in service
- Purchase of non-medical equipment such as white goods, electronics, aids
- Signposting to other professional services
Who is eligble?
Family, friends or neighbours who provide unpaid care to anybody over the age of 18, livng in Plymouth area can receive support from the Hospital Service that have had an admission in Derriford.
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 presented in A&E, Acute Medical Units, Medical Triage Units
- When the Urgent Community Response, Rapid Response or the Ambulance service request our input to avoid admission.
You are an Adult Carer if you provide unpaid support for family, friends or neighbours who may need your help because they are ill, frail, disabled, suffer with mental ill health, substance misuse or drug use or other long term condition.
Caring for Carers provide a wide range of support to unpaid carers, which may include:
- Website for information
- Monthly E-Newsletters
- Contact by telephone, email and social media (Facebook)
- Carers Passport
- Carers Support Groups
- Carers Training
- Events/Monthly Activities
- Discount Schemes
In everything we do we are led by Carers. This ensures all carers have choice, control and a voice as expert partners in care.
