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What is reablement?
Reablement is the provision of short-term practical and emotional support to assist patients to recover, build resilience and increase independence at home. This may include (but is not limited to) getting out of, or going to, bed; transfers between bed, chair and toilet as appropriate (with consideration for the appropriate equipment); washing; bathing; denture and mouth care; hand, foot and skin care; dressing and undressing.
Which type of patient is reablement suitable for?
Reablement helps people with poor physical or mental health learn or relearn the skills necessary for daily living.
Most of the people referred to HomeLink Healthcare for reablement by GPs, consultants and other professionals are elderly, frail and unable to travel for treatment.
HomeLink Healthcare’s reablement experience:
HomeLink Healthcare is a clinician-led organisation that has been providing Hospital at Home services since 2016. HomeLink Healthcare’s reablement pathway:
- supports patients in their own homes to increase their independence and mobility
- reduces waiting lists for community physiotherapy services
- helps avoid patients being admitted to hospital
- gives patients access to the physiotherapy support they need.
Therapy-led support is offered through experienced and caring physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses and rehabilitation support workers.
We work in conjunction with local partner organisations or as the sole provider of care.
Our expertise
What are the key features of the reablement approach?
Reablement:
- focuses on a person’s strengths to promote and maximise independence and wellbeing
- builds confidence after a spell of illness, deterioration in health, an injury, a hospital admission or an acquired disability
- is different to traditional home care services as it involves care providers standing back and encouraging the promotion of self-care skills that may have been lost
- supports people to regain or retain skills to enable them to manage with minimal or no support
- is short-term and intensive; typically provided for up to six weeks
- is not means-tested – the service is free to people who meet the locally defined eligibility criteria
- focuses on restoring independent functioning, rather than resolving healthcare issues
- aims to prevent re-admission to hospital or premature move to a care home
- is usually provided in a person’s own home, but may be provided in an intermediate care facility
- is about setting and working toward meaningful goals
- aims to reconnect people with their communities to reduce social isolation
- can help to reduce the amount of care the person needs from carers and family
- reduces the need to visit the hospital emergency department.
“Excellent exercises and very good physiotherapists. They were very patient and thorough in their approach and explained all the exercises well and were most encouraging. Now I know what to practice and how to continue the exercises daily.”
– Patient feedback
How does the HomeLink Healthcare reablement service work?
When patients are referred to us we use the Barthel index to assess functional independence, and EQ-5D-5L – a self-assessed, health-related, quality-of-life questionnaire.
Our trained and qualified therapists, reablement support workers and healthcare assistants will visit people in their own homes according to an agreed schedule. During the visit, our staff will carry out the agreed reablement interventions, and report against KPIs and outcome measures.
Where appropriate we can provide access to mobility aids, assistive technology, and digital solutions to support rehabilitation and reablement in the place that patients call home. We are also able to provide wrap around care if required.
What impact does reablement have for patients and the NHS?
In the nine months from October 2021 to June 2022, our Lewisham reablement service saw 297 patients and delivered 2,323 visits. As a result, a waiting list of 203 patients in October 2021 was reduced by 85% to just 30 by June 2022.
At the same time, the agreed outcome measures show that patients are less dependent, report better health, and are more mobile, better able to self-care, more able to carry out their usual activities, in less pain or discomfort, and less anxious or depressed.
Our partnership with Lewisham Adult Therapy Team saw a waiting list of 203 reduce by 85% to 30 in just 18 weeks. The partnership was shortlisted for a Chief Allied Health Professionals Officers (CAHPO) award. Read the case study here.
Get in touch
To find out more about the process of commissioning HomeLink Healthcare to set up a Hospital at Home service, click on the button below.
To speak to a member of our team about our reablement services, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or email us below. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience and how we might be able to help you.
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