Homeward Bound: Co-Designing the Pathway from Hospital to Home for Older People

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. Stage one involved an eightmonth scoping period, during which practitioners across Scotland contributed to the development of a resource that gives an overview of existing pathways (http://content.iriss.org.uk/hospitaltohome/). Stage two was spent integrating the experiences of older people, informal carers and health and social care practitioners from Tayside over a period of six months. The final stage was spent embedding the co-designed interventions in practice locally. Innovation, Impact and Outcomes: The Design Council’s Double Diamond Methodology was used to inform a co-production approach supported by service design methodology and tools. This was achieved by running creative and innovative monthly workshops supporting health and social care practitioners to work alongside older people and informal carers.