Support after a fall or medical crisis

• What support is available
• Rehabilitation and reablement
• If you cannot manage at home
• How long support lasts
• Continuing healthcare

After a stay in hospital, a fall, a medical crisis, or a change in your health, you may need some support to help get your independence back and prevent your health getting worse.

As you recover, you might need help with things like washing, dressing, taking medication, and/or cooking.

Support is available for people who live in Portsmouth or are registered with a GP here.

Some benefits and financial support can be affected by a stay in hospital – check which benefits are affected by a hospital stay.

We’ll discuss with you what support you might need, and consider the following options:

• support from family or friends at home
• visits from a care worker at home
• reablement support at home
• equipment or adaptations to your home
• short stay in a rehabilitation unit
• short stay in a residential or nursing home

You might move more than once as we try to find the best place for you.

Whatever short-term support is provided, it will be followed by a discussion and assessment of your longer-term care and support needs.

If you’d like to ask about long-term support from the council, you can ask for a needs assessment. You may need to pay towards the cost of your care.

If you’d like to arrange your own private care and support, you can find a care worker or personal assistant.

Community Rehab Service (CRS)

Our Community Rehab Service (CRS) helps you regain independence by learning and practising everyday skills. CRS provides short-term, personalised care if you are finding daily life difficult due to illness, injury, or disability.

How CRS can help

CRS is a joint service run by Portsmouth City Council and the NHS. We work together to:

• Support you to stay independent at home
• Help you recover more quickly after illness or a hospital stay
• Reduce unnecessary hospital admissions

What CRS offers

CRS focuses on your strengths and tailors support to your needs. This can include:

• Skill-building – Regain or develop skills for daily activities such as mobility, personal care, and household tasks
• Confidence-building – Emotional support to boost confidence and mental wellbeing
• Equipment and home adaptations – Assessing and adapting your home to make it safe and supportive
• Short-term, goal-focused care – Empowering you to manage your own care and reduce long-term reliance on formal services

Who can access CRS

• Adults aged 18+ living in Portsmouth (PO1–PO6) or registered with a Portsmouth GP
• Referral required – CRS does not accept direct referrals. A health or care professional must refer you

If you can’t manage at home straight away, we may be able to offer you a stay in one of our step-up or step-down units.

• Step-up is to prevent you needing to go to hospital
• Step-down is to support you after a stay in hospital before returning home

You could be discharged after a few days or a few weeks, depending on how quickly you recover.

Rehabilitation and reablement support can be provided for free for up to six weeks. If you need support for longer than six weeks, there may be a charge.

Find out about needs assessments and paying for social care.

Some people with long-term complex health needs qualify for care arranged and funded by the NHS. This is known as NHS continuing healthcare.

If the hospital staff believes you may need continuing healthcare after leaving hospital, you’ll be contacted by either the hospital social worker or a member of our continuing healthcare team, to arrange an assessment.

During the assessment, the continuing health care team will ask you about your healthcare needs. They may also ask other health and social care staff involved in your care for their views.

The team will look at:

• what help you need
• how complex your needs are
• how intense your needs can be
• how unpredictable they are, including any risks to your health if the right care is not provided at the time.

If you’re not eligible for continuing healthcare, we’ll discuss your other options with you and put you in touch with other organisations that might be able to help.