Hospital and care in the community
PositiveThinker
Community member Posts: 4 Listener
Hi, seeking advice from OTs and everyone else. I've a number of disabilities and not been home since March this year as I've been in hospital and rehab. Back in hospital now and told was fit for discharge weeks ago. Waiting for a care package to be put in place so I can go home, I live alone. Hospital social services have passed my case to the community mental health team (I'm a user of that service) to provide a care package even though currently my needs are physical for me to be home safely from hospital. It seems I'm being passed around with nobody wanting to take responsibility. I just want to go home and live a near normal life as possible. Any advice on what I can do to enable this would be very much appreciated.
Comments
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Oh how frustrating for you @PositiveThinker
Scope
Senior online community officer -
Hi @PositiveThinker
Thanks for your post. Unfortunately getting everything in place in the community to enable a person to safely return home can take some time.
The hospital should be able to tell you the name of the specific person who is coordinating your discharge and they should be able to give you an indication of what progress has been made and what time-scale you can expect. The PALS at the hospital might also be about to help you to find out what is going on. Hospitals are normally very keen to free up beds so have a vested interest in chasing up what is happening with their colleagues in the community.
I'm not overly surprised that the community mental health service have been given the lead in getting arrangements put in place. This can happen when a person already on a teams caseload is returning home, and it would normally be their role to liaise with other community based services that will be needed.
Unfortunately, we all know, the NHS and community services are all struggling with a lack of resources and in some instances struggling with huge caseloads. It is possible that perhaps that the mental health team practitioners are not currently viewing making arrangements for you as an urgent priority. So some professional advocacy might prove to be helpful if you are unable to get clarification and action without it.
Best Wishes
JeanJean Merrilees BSc MRCOT
You can read more of my posts at: https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/ask-an-occupational-therapist
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Thank you Sam, Mike and Jean, very grateful for your comments and advice. Marion x
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