13. Supportive and person centred discharge
One of the big issues that is often discussed is that of discharge. Staff will be planning for discharge, including key aspects of a patients’ long term recovery from the beginning of admission. However this isn’t always obvious to patients and carers.
The guidelines state discharge planning should be person centred, particularly in care planning. That is should be recovery-focussed with a shared understanding of what recovery means for the individual patient. It should be consistent in its processes, supporting effective discharge with patients empowered to take ownership of their own recovery.
One way to help ensure that this is the case is to carefully consider the role of the carer, friend or family member. They should be seen as an essential part of a patient’s care and there can be great benefits in them being part of the multi-disciplinary team delivering care and treatment.
Listen to the quotes given here.
I went home for a weekends leave and they phoned me to say my bed had gone.
We have good links with social care. We refer everybody to social care first off, so somebody is allocated to that patient. A social worker is then already appointed when discharge is taking place.
I had a brilliant recovery focussed ward round. From the word go the doctor talked about discharge, which was a bit frightening. Little by little I was discharged.
Discharge and aftercare was very good. My daughter was kept informed but not involved but this is because she lives 100 miles away – she was well informed.
I was put with and enabler when I got close to discharge and this was a good thing.
We could maybe incorporate into discharge planning the reality about bed pressures, it might be worth us talking about a plan B.
I never knew how long I’d be there. I used to ask if I could go home, but never got a response. They never really talked to me.