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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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'Out of Hospital'
— a scoping study of services for carers of people being discharged from hospital | | Author(s) | R Borthwick, L Newbronner, L Stuttard |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 17, no 4, July 2009 |
| Pages | pp 335-349 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/hsc |
| Keywords | Discharge [hospitals] ; Informal care ; Services ; Evaluation ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Successive government policies have highlighted the need to inform and involve carers fully in the hospital discharge process. However, some research suggests that many carers feel insufficiently involved and unsupported in this process. This paper summarises a scoping review to identify what the UK literature tells us about the service provision for carers, and its effectiveness, around the time of hospital discharge of the care recipient, and also describes a mapping exercise of the work currently being done by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers centres in England, to support carers around the time of hospital discharge. The restriction to the UK literature was dictated by the nature of the project, a modest review carried out for a UK-based voluntary sector organisation. 53 documents were reviewed, of which 19 papers (representing 17 studies) were reporting on primary research. As only five of these studies actually involved an intervention, it appears there is very little research from the UK which evaluates specific specific interventions to support carers around the time of hospital discharge of the care recipient. While the mapping exercise showed that in some areas there are services and/or initiatives in place which have been designed to improve the process of discharge for carers, in many places there is still a gap between what what policy and research suggest should happen and what actually happens to carers at this time. Even where services and initiatives to support through the discharge process exist, there is only limited evidence from research or evaluation to demonstrate their impact on the carer's experience. Further research, both qualitative and quantitative, is required in these areas to enable commissioners, providers and carers' organisations to work together towards a service in which patients and carers also receive the support and help they need at this significant time of transition. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090619202 A |
| Classmark | LD:QKJ: P6: I: 4C: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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