Hospital Discharge

**Post 1**:28 Hours/week (negotiable) working with patients ready to be discharged from Torbay Hospital

**Post 2**:20 Hours/week (negotiable) working to support people who are accessing services from the Emergency Department at Torbay Hospital

**Both Posts**:Will be asked to join a rota for a 5-6 hour shift on a Saturday that asks for 1 Saturday in 4 to be worked either as additional hours with enhanced pay or as a part of their weekly hours.

**Overview**
Torbay Hospital value the contribution the voluntary sector are able to make to support patients, their carers and wider families as they look to return home following a stay or have sought services from the Emergency Department.

We are recruiting to 2 posts to join this small and busy team who connect patients to services from within their communities to support safe and effective discharge from Torbay Hospital and reduce readmission to both inpatient and Emergency Department (ED) services.

Torbay Hospital is a large and busy hospital. The postholders will work with nurses and ward staff and in partnership with a wide range of teams on site but also teams in the community including Adult Social Care, Independent Care Providers, Local Authority Housing Departments, Welfare and Benefits teams and Voluntary and Community Organisations

**Job details**
Working collaboratively with the Urgent and Emergency Care system and inpatient wards, the project team engage with patients referred by the ED teams and Hospital Discharge Teams.

The post holders will employ a strengths-based approach to review and assess the needs of patients, their carers, and wider families. These conversations will include health messaging that will highlight where patients might be supported locally in their community from generic or specialist services. The project team will plan, liaise with and engage those services on behalf of patients, their carers and wider family.

**Training will be available for all new project staff.**

**Key Responsibilities**
- To listen to and understand the needs of patients, their carers and families to identify how needs can be met from within the community. This could be in the Emergency Department or on inpatient wards.
- To carry out safe and considered assessments of patients’ needs in consultation with other hospital staff
- To take referrals from nursing teams across the Trust and self-referrals from patients and their carers/families.
- Plan for and put in place referrals to services and support in the community that will enable positive lifestyle changes and improved wellbeing. This may include: o Transport home from hospital and to future health appointments o Ensuring access to food and good nutrition o Ensuring advice on benefits and income maximisation o Access to support to reduce social isolation o Access to home help support o Advocacy where needed o Advice and support for carers o Signposting to wellbeing services including those concentrating on end of life and dementia/memory loss and the Torbay and South Devon HOPE programme. o Supporting Discharge Coordinators to arrange services to enable discharge e.g deep cleaning of a property, furniture moving to accommodate hospital equipment.
- Work with patients, carers and families and services in the community to remove any structural or social barriers to accessing services.
- Employ an innovative and solution focussed approach to engage services that meet the needs of patients carers and their families with a focus on self-care.

**Administration**
- Provide both written and verbal updates and reports in collaboration with the ED and inpatient teams which are accurate, personalised and follow data protection guidance and awareness of information governance and confidentiality.
- Report to the multi-agency Steering Group established to assist this programme of work and to support the development of the offer from within this project.
- To maintain accurate and confidential records of activity, outputs and outcomes.
- To support the work of and share intelligence with the other members of Teignbridge CVS and wider, interested teams
- To be administratively self-reliant.

**Other Duties**
Any other general duties as may be required reasonably by the line manager. Staff work as a team; our team is expected to share workloads and become familiar with a range of common duties to ensure continuity of service during peak periods, sickness absence and holidays.

**PERSON SPECIFICATION**

We know you won't have all the knowledge and skills from day one, but we are looking for staff who are not afraid of new projects, who can work creatively and confidently under their own initiative within a team environment and who are committed to supporting people to maintain their independence, good wellbeing and promote self-care.

**Qualifications**
- Good standard of general education

**Experience**
- One year’s relevant frontline experience in a support role in any organisation
- Of working with a