Hospital discharge: lost opportunities to promote or maintain older people's mental health

Quality in Ageing and Older Adults,Volume 17, Issue 3, September 2016. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of hospital discharge on the wider wellbeing of older people, drawing out implications this can have on mental health. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on research from the Healthwatch England Special Inquiry into hospital discharge. The paper focuses on the experiences of 1,300 older people, with the majority of the research being undertaken by the local Healthwatch network. The 58 local Healthwatch who submitted evidence on the experiences of older people as part of the inquiry were autonomous in how they were able to carry out the research, with results being analysed through use of a qualitative framework. Findings Older people often felt they were not ready for discharge due to not feeling involved in planning of their discharge, being discharged without the information they need, and having difficulties accessing aftercare support. This paper examines the impact these issues can have on the mental health and wellbeing of older people, their carers and specifically patients with dementia both during and after discharge from hospital. Through examination of these issues the discharge process can be viewed from the perspective of the individual, and start to conceptualise where the hospital discharge process could further support older people ’s mental health and wellbeing. Research limitations/implications This paper examin...
Source: Quality in Ageing and Older Adults - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research