Carers and caring
Carer’s role supporting discharge from hospital
As a carer, you have a right under the law to be informed and involved in hospital discharge and planning. You and the person you care for should be involved at all stages of discharge planning, so long as the person you care for consents to this. Hospital wards can sometimes seem like busy places and you may feel pressure from the hospital to get the person you care for home as soon as possible.
Discharge planning should start as soon as the person you care for is admitted to hospital. The hospital will set and work to a Planned Date of Discharge (PDD) linked to the person’s clinical care and treatment plan. It is therefore important to let the hospital staff know as early as possible if you are a carer or thinking of taking on the role. Staff may not realise that you are the carer, so it can really help them if you let them know.
A discharge coordinator should be available to coordinate the planning process. They will act as a key person for you to contact to find out what the discharge plans are. Lanarkshire Carers has a dedicated hospital link project.
- Carers and caring
- Our approach to carer support
- Carers rights, our duties and requirements
- What is local eligibility criteria?
- The Carers Pathway
- Assessment of eligible needs
- What does substantial or critical mean?
- Funding to support carer’s outcomes
- Adult Carer Support Plans (ACSP)
- Carer’s role supporting discharge from hospital
- We must establish and maintain an information and advice service for carers
- We must prepare and publish a short breaks service statement
- Information and support for carers
- We have a duty to prepare a local Carers Strategy
- Resources for carers
- Glossary