Mental health
Feature
83 % 70 80
of service users had co-existing physical health needs
Majority of service users on the Home First pilot were aged between
and
© Ridofranz via Getty Images
flow might be . In the past , we ’ d also thought about how we might be creative with our occupational therapy posts and look at part working in the acute setting and part in the community . But we ’ d never quite been able to develop those transitional posts .
‘ It was a good opportunity , when we looked at the evidence , to bring some of that together .’
Securing funding and getting started
The next step was to think about funding . Gemma Dorer , Professional Lead Occupational Therapist , Coastal and North West Sussex , adds : ‘ We ’ ve had to be quite proactive . All the acute occupational therapy leads came together to present to a panel of directors and operational managers . You can ’ t wait for someone to come knocking on your door , you ’ ve got to go in there .
‘ Teresa had already undertaken a large piece of work around the evidence base , which was so helpful and powerful , and it had just come at the right time for the winter pressures funding .’
Work started in December 2020 and a total of 31 services users from across the three wards received Home First occupational therapy intervention during the pilot .
Service users were aged between 57 and 92 , with the majority of those aged between 70 and 80 . Service users had a range of mental health conditions and 83 % had coexisting physical health needs .
Home First was provided both for people living alone and those living with carers or family members . As this was an individualised intervention , there was considerable variation in the number of sessions each person received , ranging from one to 33 .
Most commonly , people received between six and nine sessions of intervention . This included pre-discharge work on the ward , as well as sessions after discharge .
Teresa says : ‘ The occupational therapists were trying to identify people right from the point they were admitted to the acute ward , to see if they were suitable to benefit from Home First .
It ’ s so important to know that somebody cares , not from a distance , but by coming to the house and being with us .”
‘ Ideally these were people aged 65 and over . however , it was based on need , so we would consider other patients if they were on our later life wards and younger than that .’
To be part of the pilot , service users needed to have an identified discharge address .
‘ Predominantly we were prioritising people that were going to be living independently in their own homes and perhaps didn ’ t have an existing support network ,’ Teresa says . This meant prioritising those people with limited function or occupational needs , which had been delaying discharge .
June 2022 OTnews 17