New approach supports hospital leavers most at risk in Staffordshire

Revival is taking a new approach to supporting customers at home by making health and wellbeing a priority.

We now have services across Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire and provide a range of support to help older people remain independent in their homes.

Our Home Support Service helps transform customer’s homes to meet their needs so they can return safely from hospital. Including anything from providing financial support, making minor or large-scale repairs, home adaptations and helping to improve overall wellbeing.

The team have received a number of referrals from customers who are becoming hard to contact and are having to take a new approach to make sure their health and wellbeing is a priority.

Home Support Officer, Mark (pictured above) explains: “We’ve recently had to review our working practices to protect those customers who are hard to reach.

We’ve decided to follow up on people by going out to their homes when we struggle to contact them. Checking in to see how they are getting on after being released from hospital.

“Customer Eric was released home from hospital and we were asked to just fit a key safe so carers could enter his home to provide support twice a day.

“As he didn’t have a phone and was hard to reach, we called in on him to see how he was getting on. We visited and found he was in a poor mental and physical state.

“He was feeling low and was considering suicide, with a plan in place about how he would end his life.

“His home, like himself had been neglected and we found his kitchen and bathroom to be unsanitary. He had poor hygiene, wasn’t eating and was at an immediate risk of being readmitted into hospital.

“We raised our concerns with the hospital and their response was fantastic. The very next day a mental health and home assessment was carried out and as a result Eric’s care was immediately increased to the maximum number of daily calls.

“A referral was made to the Fire Service for a home safety assessment, and to occupational therapy who provided various aids to help him around the house. A recommendation was made for him to have a social worker to help with his ongoing personal and environmental health issues.

“Thanks to this new approach Eric now has the support he needs. His home is a better environment and he’s getting help and support with his mental and overall health.