Help shape hospital discharge experiences for you and the person you care for.
VONNE (Voluntary Organisations Network North East) have commissioned a team at Northumbria University to carry out research to help improve the way unpaid carers in the North East and Yorkshire are supported when the person they care for is being discharged from hospital.
If you are an unpaid carer, or you support unpaid carers in your role, we want to hear from you. We are seeking people willing to share their experiences, whether they or the people they supported have felt and the challenges around hospital’s involving carers in discharge decisions.
If you are willing to speak to our researchers and join us at some workshops in the autumn, you can help design a good practice guide that could be used in every hospital across the region. By sharing your views, we hope to design a guide that will consider carers as part of the discharge team and put support their health and wellbeing at what can be a very stressful time. We hope that the evidence-based guide will improve the experience of unpaid carers across our region.
Every experience is valued. We want to ensure that carers from a wide range of backgrounds and geographical areas have their perspective heard. The research team will also speak to carers support organisation staff and NHS staff who are part of the multi-disciplinary discharge teams at some of our region’s hospitals, asking them what they think the issues are, and what actions are required to improve this experience for carers. Most importantly, carers will be involved at every stage of the project.
Carers will be reimbursed for their expenses and time in supporting this work. The North East and Yorkshire Regional Personalised Care Team at NHS England are funding the project.
If you would like to know more, please contact Mr. Mitchell Hogg, a member of the research team, at mitchell.j.hogg@northumbria.ac.uk