New guidance to help people live independently
Released On 27th Sep 2024
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has published new guidance to help people live more independently after a hospital stay. The guidance has been published by SCIE to help those who commission, manage and deliver reablement services to tackle key barriers that can prevent people from fully benefitting from the service.
Reablement is a time-limited, intensive intervention that helps people maintain their independence by helping them find new ways to manage their daily lives, allowing them to continue living at home for longer. Older people recently discharged from a hospital are among the primary recipients of reablement services.
According to SCIE, research shows that people who actively participate in regaining their independence through reablement are more likely to avoid the need for ongoing care. This subsequently reduces pressure on the wider social care system and decreases the risk of hospital re-admission.
However, despite being a core pillar of older people’s social care for almost 20 years, reablement services are still finding that people do not always understand what the intervention is and those who are referred can be reluctant to engage fully with the service. This means they do not benefit from reablement as much as they could or should.
Researchers from the University of York found that multiple factors affect whether someone engages with reablement services, such as people not understanding the difference between reablement and ‘traditional homecare’, services that refer people for reablement failing to properly prepare older people and families for the intervention, reablement staff’s skills in managing conflict and securing engagement and inadequate time allocated to reablement visits due to service pressures.
To help overcome these barriers, the research team worked with reablement staff, older people and carers to develop a series of evidence-based and practical recommendations to support reablement services, which has now been published by SCIE as an online resource, called, Supporting engagement with reablement: a practice guidance resource for reablement services.
Commenting on the publication of the new resource, Kathryn Smith, SCIE Chief Executive, said, 'Reablement is an important model of care that empowers people to continue living independently in their own homes for longer. It not only benefits the individual receiving the intervention, but also their loved ones, as it avoids the need to afford ongoing social care services and reduces the pressure on them to take on an unpaid carer role. More widely, it eases pressure on our overstretched and cash-strapped NHS and social care sector.
'As a society, there is a persisting misconception that we become frail and unable to look after ourselves properly as we age. The truth is that many of us now continue to live active lifestyles as we get older and value our independence. Reablement allows people to do exactly this – up to 70% of people will be discharged without any ongoing care need. We must ensure that barriers are addressed to ensure more people can experience the full benefit of this service.
'We are pleased to be supporting this guidance from the University of York, which highlights important challenges the social care system must address if reablement is to succeed. The practical nature of the recommendations provides a clear framework that will allow the sector to begin tackling the issue of poor engagement by users and family members in a consistent manner.'
Lead Researcher, Professor Bryony Beresford, said, 'When older people and their families don’t fully engage with being reabled it has a direct impact on how successful reablement is. The reasons why this might happen can be complex, but through our research, we were able to develop recommendations that will help reablement services address these barriers.
'Our guidance has been developed in consultation with older people and reablement practitioners and is an accessible and evidence-based resource for everyone involved in the commissioning, managing and delivery of reablement. It includes practical "quick wins" as well as more significant, but still realistic, changes that reablement services can implement to improve user engagement.'
The new resource includes best practice guidance and recommendations on:
- How to refer to reablement services and staff to ensure consistency of language.
- Supporting referring agencies to prepare people for reablement.
- Ensuring equipment and other aids can be rapidly accessed.
- Staff training, peer support and supervision.
- Effective ways of working with clients and families.
- Creating information leaflets and videos.
- Running local public information campaigns.
The resource also calls for increased funding for reablement services so that reablement staff have adequate time to work with clients and families, and for national investment in educating the public about social care, including reablement.
The resource was developed as part of a project to understand and address user and family understanding of, and engagement with, reablement and was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) School for Social Care Research.
