BARNSLEY is performing better than similar areas and the national average in terms of helping older people leaving hospital back to their normal lives as quickly as possible.
Barnsley Council’s hospital social work team is based at Barnsley Hospital and helps assess the needs of patients and provides help and support to enable a safe hospital discharge.
They work closely with hospital staff to make sure people who are leaving hospital receive the most appropriate support making it less likely people end up back in hospital or stay longer than they need to, preventing unnecessary admissions and reducing the number of people waiting to be discharged.
About 150 people a month currently see the hospital social work team, receiving a range of services from information and advice through to arranging complicated care packages.
Coun Margaret Bruff, Barnsley Council’s safeguarding spokes-man, said: “Our job is to enable people to return home, as soon as it is safe to do so.
“Our social care workers will advocate individuals’ wishes and support them the best they can to manage at home, wherever this is possible.
“Barnsley’s performance in relation to supporting people on discharge from hospital is among the best in the country.”
Recent figures show the proportion of those aged 65 and over in Barnsley who were still at home 91 days after discharge from hospital into reablement/rehabilitation services was 84.1 percent.
This means that Barnsley is performing better than both similar councils (81.4 per cent) and the England average of 82.5 per cent.