Support after a fall or medical crisis

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.

Our rehabilitation and reablement team (PRRT) will work with you to learn and practise the skills you need to become independent again.

The team is made up of both council and NHS staff, who work together to provide the particular support you need.

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.

The community independence service (CIS) is for people over 18 who live in Portsmouth and want to be more independent in their day-to-day lives.

If you’re referred to our community independence service, we’ll visit you at your home to introduce our service and talk about your personal goals. We’ll then make a plan with you about how we can help you work towards these goals.

We’ll support you to improve your day-to-day skills and learn new ones, to help you live the life you want as independently as possible.

We don’t have set timescales but will normally work with you for around six weeks.

The team is made up of occupational therapists and support staff.

• Occupational therapists help with developing, recovering and improving. They also help with maintaining any skills needed for independent living after an illness or injury.
• Support staff assist under the guidance and direction of the therapists.

We may introduce you to our independent living support workers to help you with your goals.

We may also signpost you to other people and organisations who could support you in the long-term.

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.