Centre for Policy on Ageing



Pre-discharge home visits with older people — time to review practice
Author(s)	Gail Mountain, Alison Pighills
Journal title	Health & Social Care in the Community, vol 11, no 2, March 2003
Pages	pp 146-154
Keywords	Discharge [hospitals] ; Occupational therapists ; Home visits [doctors] ; Literature reviews.
Annotation	This review paper uses the available evidence to make a case for reconsidering the practice of undertaking pre-discharge home visits with frail older people as part of decisions regarding a return home. This practice is embedded into the routine activity of acute medical wards for older people, and occupies a large proportion of hospital-employed occupational therapy staff time, with consequent financial and resource implications. Assessments are often conducted to provide information on safe discharge, rather than in the interest of older people and their carers. The introduction of a new range of services bridging hospital and home raises the need for an urgent, critical appraisal of this practice. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-030319208 A
Classmark	LD:QKJ: QTR: L5H: 64A
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.