Short-term care

​Each hospital will have its own policy and arrangements for discharging patients.

Normally, when you arrive in hospital, the professionals in charge of your care will develop a plan for your treatment, including your discharge or transfer. This is usually done within 24 hours of your arrival.

You will be able to discuss arrangements for your discharge with staff. This will help to ensure that you have everything you need for a full recovery when you return home.

Most people who are discharged from hospital need only a small amount of care after they leave. This is called 'minimal discharge'. Other patients with straightforward social care needs may be sent home with our ‘Crisis Response Team’ to have their needs assessed in their own homes on discharge, whilst receiving any immediate care and support that they might need.

If you need more specialised care after you leave hospital, your discharge or transfer procedure is referred to as a 'complex discharge'.

For example, you may:

• have complex ongoing health and social care needs
• need to be discharged to a residential home or care home

The Health Partnership teams work with the hospital staff to make sure your discharge or transfer is as easy as possible and that you have what you need when leaving the hospital.

​The Crisis Response Team respond to those in need of help, care and support on their discharge home following an admission to hospital.

Working with Northampton General Hospital, Kettering General Hospital and Northamptonshire Health Foundation Trust (NHS Community Services), The Crisis Response Team respond to those in need of help, care and support on their discharge home following an admission to hospital. Short term Reablement Care and Support is provided to customers with an aim of promoting a person’s independence and improving their confidence. During this time your care needs will be assessed, and if a need for ongoing care is identified this will be arranged.

Continuity of care

Our Crisis Response Team works very closely with other services within Northamptonshire Adult Social Services / Olympus Care Services to make sure you receive the best standard of care to meet your needs.

Care at home

By providing you with physical and emotional support, and by helping you to remain as independent as possible, our caring team will help you to return to your own home from hospital as quickly as possible when you become well enough.

Our Crisis Response Team accept professional referrals only.

​Reablement is designed to help you become as independent as possible.

Perhaps you need support with personal care or to prepare a meal. The reablement service will work with you to make it as easy as possible to manage these tasks on your own. In traditional home care, someone would visit and do these tasks. With reablement, the support staff will work with you so that you can learn or re-learn important tasks needed for everyday life. Many people who participate in a reablement programme find that afterwards they can cope very well on their own, without the need for ongoing social care support.

How do I access a reablement service?

Reablement can be provided in your own home from the Short Term Assessment and Reablement Team (START). START provides support, usually with personal care, for a very short time. This can be anything from a few days and up to a maximum of six weeks, in your own home.

You may already be at home, or about to return home from a specialist care centre or a hospital, are feeling run down, poorly, or have had some kind of accident or change in your life. The team will support you to, either ‘get back on your feet’, or identify how much support you may need in the future.

This service is not chargeable for up to six weeks whilst you are receiving reablement support. As soon as a full assessment of your needs is completed and it is identified that you have ongoing care needs you will be charged from that date. The outcome of the assessment can be at any point whilst you are receiving a service from us. If you need homecare support to continue, a financial assessment may be required to determine your contribution to these costs.

The START service accepts professional referrals only. If you feel you need a social care assessment please complete the social care referral form, alternatively if you already receive the START service and your circumstances have changed please request a review.

Reablement services are also provided by Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Intermediate Care Team.

Holistic Intermediate Care Team (HICT)

The Holistic Intermediate Care Team provide short term support for adults diagnosed dementia.

Where specialist dementia reablement is identified, the START service will be supported by an Admiral Nurse and where identified Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and liaison with other relevant health and social care professionals. This is a short term support service and is provided free of charge for any period up to a maximum of six weeks or eight weeks for customers with a diagnoses of dementia. During this time the customer is supported usually with personal care to help them with rehabilitation or to identify how much support they may need in future.

To access this service please request an assessment or review.

Short term respite can be planned care or emergency care to provide a temporary break to families or carers who are caring for an adult.

Respite care can be pre-booked at specialist care centres following an assessment of your needs. It is a chargeable service so there will be a financial assessment to determine how much you will have to contribute towards the cost. If you have income or savings above the financial threshold, or you wish to self fund, you can access respite care at specialist care centres through adult social services.

• Find out more about short term respite

​Olympus Care Services are able to offer quality short-term respite care in some of their homes for individuals who are usually cared for at home or have been in hospital and require support with a gradual return to health following discharge.

They also offer respite for self-funders through their Shared Lives Service and all of their residential homes.

• Pine Lodge, Corby - 01604 361713
• Boniface House , Brixworth - 01604 883800
• Evelyn Wright House, Daventry - 01604 367775
• Obelisk House, Northampton - 01604 850910
• Ridgway House, Towcester - 01327 350700

Norarch membership includes residential and nursing care both for younger and older people and for people with learning difficulties. They also offer specialist homes such as a home for the blind. Membership is restricted to proprietors and managers of registered care organisations in Northamptonshire.

Norarch have compiled a list of care homes who are willing to offer respite beds to self funders.​

• Norarch Care Homes providing respite for self-funders - Jan 2016 (PDF 476KB) 

​Rapid Response is a short term service in Northamptonshire that supports older adults in a time of crisis. The newly designed service is part of the NASS strategy, which focuses on helping people remain safely at home when they are at risk of being admitted to hospital or helping them get admitted to hospital for the right care at the right time.

The service is finding new ways of working with our partner the East Midlands Ambulance Service. Rapid Response staff work alongside ambulance technicians when responding to people after a fall at home and those needing support in regaining their independence. It also provides support where district nurses or GP's have identified potential crisis situations.

The service works with public health, who also provide a Rapid Response and physiotherapy team. They also place staff in Accident and Emergency departments alongside hospital staff to help identify patients that can be discharged and cared for at home. This reduces the chance of having to stay longer than necessary in hospital.

Once the patient is home, the service continues to support the patient. This support can be in the form of help with personal care, giving advice and information about the services available or giving out equipment that helps with independence.

The Rapid Response Reablement staff will work alongside EMAS, Community Nurses, hospital staff and families to help people avoid hospital admission or to plan supported discharges. The team will promote patient safety and develop positive working relationships with our NHS colleagues.