What to expect after hospital stay

[Magnificentkitteh]

My DM is currently in hospital with a chest infection. They've said she'll be in at least a couple of days and they'll do tests. The thing is her health and mobility are generally very poor. She has very little appetite or muscle mass and issues with circulation and arthritis low blood pressure and low blood sugar. Objectively speaking she could do with being in sheltered housing at least, but she has capacity and is mentally well. I'm pretty confident the chest infection is treatable and already improving but not sure what the hospital will conclude about her general fitness to discharge and what other options there might be. Does anyone have any experience or advice as to what to expect?

The person you want is the ward occupational therapist - if she’s been referred to them (if there’s no obvious changes in her function she might not have been).

What do you think would be different about sheltered accommodation?

I’d agree re OT & also physio if mobility decline. It’s difficult if she has capacity & wants to remain in her own home tho. Does she have a pendant alarm in case she falls, & appropriate aids? Can she manage stairs safely (if she has them)? As far as I understand many sheltered accommodation complexes don’t necessarily have a warden on site 24/7 anymore. It depends what your specific concerns are that you feel sheltered accommodation would address.

Thanks. I'm not really sure what I want really. Just wondering if they would actually "allow" her to go home without any changes. She manages but I'm not sure how safe it is objectively and she doesn't have much quality of life really - she might be better with more company on site etc - but she might prefer the status quo to the alternatives. An alarm would be good. She has a partner but he's of little use tbh. She has a walker but struggles a lot even with it.

There will be therapists attached to the ward who visit daily. They will assess her and feed back to the discharge team. If she has previously lived independently it may be she gets carers visits and/or Reablement team at home, or if you are fortunate a rehab bed on a unit to help her become more mobile before discharge home. A funded placement is a last resort. Does she own her home?

And the discharge team will probably send an OT to her home beforehand to look at any equipment or adaptations required for her to be safe.

Yes she wouldn't be eligible for means tested support I don't think

This is not means tested, look into applying for this if it might help

www.gov.uk/attendance-allowance

In some areas post discharge care is via an NHS contract, in others by LA Social Care, sometimes shared depending on need. It is worth finding out who is the local provider in advance.

Update: it's a bit of a different situation than I originally thought though not massively different in terms of outcome. She doesn't have a chest infection, it's complications from heart failure. Treatments might relieve some of her symptoms considerably for a while but at the moment they haven't got the balance right and her blood pressure keeps dropping dangerously low and we are in wait and see territory.

Same dilemma re where she'd be best off /happiest/safest/some combination of the above once discharged though.

I’m an elderly nurse and in general, changes are not looked at unless family raise social concerns and state the patient isn’t managing or if paramedics have raised concerns I.e self neglect. If she has capacity and wants to return home how she is, then she is able to make that decision. If however she does have physio and ot and she states there’s things she’s now struggling with, they will look into that.

Thanks for sharing your perspective