Medical care for the aged

Introduction and practice change: This project utilisied co-production methodology to enable health and social care practitioners, older people and their informal carers to work together to codesign an integrated care pathway from hospital to home. Aim and theory of change: The project aimed to improve the experience of older people transitioning from hospital to home. To achieve this aim the group co-designed a two-pronged service intervention: i. an admissions coordinator; and ii. discharge at home. Timeline: This has been a 20-month project, initiated in July 2013.

Hull Churches Home from Hospital Service (HCHfH) has been at the forefront of bringing assistive technology into the homes of the elderly with chronic illness’ through Telehealth projects since 2008.

Eighty-three hospital-discharged elders were served by a social work case manager in our 18-month case management project in July 2000. Results indicate that elderly care-recipients utilized less hospital services without sacrificing the quality-of-life of their informal carers. This paper shares the experience in the process of case management interventions and suggests strategies to implement case management interventions successfully.

Anne Marie Tunney and Assumpta Ryan discuss a study that used the experiences of women caring for survivors to assist service redesign

Aim  The aim of this study was to explore how members of a stroke carers’ support group perceived that services for stroke patients and their carers could be improved.