What is Included in Acute Care at Home?
What You Can Expect From Acute Care at Home
If you’re wondering what is included in acute care at home, then you’ve come to the right place. Most people would presume that acute care is delivered in hospital, and in many cases, that’s true. The NHS agrees. “Acute care refers to short–term treatment, usually in a hospital, for patients with any kind of physical or mental health illness or injury.” The key word is usually, though. If you’re receiving treatment for an illness or injury and you’d rather be at home, that can be made a reality thanks to Helping Hands. While you may be in hospital for a short period of intensive care, you should be able to come home fairly quickly once your condition is stabilised and be supported by our carers, working as part of your wider community healthcare team. This may include your GP surgery, community nurses, physiotherapists and more. We’ve been delivering acute care at home since 1989, so you and your loved ones can be confident you’re in the UK’s most trusted hands for home care.

What Services are Included in Acute Care?
Acute care at home can cover every element of your daily routine. You may be temporarily staying in bed as your condition improves and we can deliver everything you need while you’re there. This includes personal care, meals and drinks, and even entertainment! If you want a chat while you drink your cuppa then your live-in carer will have the time to do that in-between carrying out your housekeeping tasks. If you only need a carer to be there occasionally because your family are providing the majority of your care then they’ll still handle all the essential jobs, leaving you and your loved ones with plenty of time to focus on social aspects and keeping your morale high.
What are the Essential Elements of Acute Care?
Acute Care may begin in hospital for many people, but that isn’t where it needs to continue. Many people know that their recovery can often progress more effectively if they’re in familiar, comforting surroundings, which is why being cared for at home is so increasingly popular. The type of acute care you can expect to receive in hospital includes emergency help in the A&E department, specialist medical care, as well as inpatient and outpatient departments after surgery. Several of these elements of care can also be delivered in people’s homes, thanks to multidisciplinary healthcare teams that cover the community, and your Helping Hands carer will fit seamlessly into this team of professionals.

How Acute Care at Home Covers Your Medical Needs
Whether you’ve had an accident or required emergency treatment, your ongoing support can likely be carried out at home. If you’re in hospital, your discharge team will work with you to devise a plan for when you leave, and by having care already in place, you’ll be able to go home much quicker. Our dedicated private carers will work closely with the rest of your healthcare team, and if you need complex care, our own team of clinical nurses will manage your package of care. We’ll design your care around your individual needs and make sure that – whether you need us around the clock or intermittently – you’ll always be at the centre of your own support.
Who Needs Acute Care?
People who need acute care include those who are impacted by an emergency or have complex post-surgical needs. If you are in hospital, then you will be one of many patients being looked after by a nursing team, however if you are at home you’ll enjoy one-to-one care from a dedicated carer and wider care team. The major benefits for your physical and emotional health of being at home are that you’ll enjoy a sense of normality, with events happening as if you weren’t ill, which will help you to recover more quickly. Having your loved ones and precious pets around you will also benefit every aspect of your recovery. Perhaps you love your garden? Being able to see it every day as you always have will benefit you so much, rather than seeing unfamiliar views from a hospital window.

Additional Support Offered
There are many important benefits to receiving acute care at home, including:
Decision-making
Receiving care at home you’ll be making the decisions about how your care is delivered and in what form, decisions which may not be so easy to make if you were in a nursing home or hospital setting.
One-to-one care
You’ll be the only priority for your carer, as they’ll be living in your home with you and focussing on your total support. Even with intermittent care, you’ll still have a small care team with familiar carers.
Familiar surroundings
Instead of being somewhere you don’t recognise and sharing stark surroundings with many other people, you can have acute care at home and be in the place you love best, with loved ones, pets and favourite views.
Locally based support
We have 150 branches across England and Wales, all run by our dedicated care teams. We’re the UK’s number one home care company that’s small enough to care while being big enough to cope.
Receive the Acute Care You Need From Our Team of Experts
At Helping Hands, we only offer person-centred care, which makes us very different from some other care providers. Because we’re a private care company—as opposed to a care agency—we are fully regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the Care Inspectorate Wales. We put ourselves forward for regulation because we welcome accountability, which keeps our standards consistently high. Our team of clinical nurses are highly experienced in both private care and the NHS, and they ensure our complex support carers have all the skills they need to help our customers recover at home. Talking to your local care team or speaking with our centralised customer care team will help you and your loved ones learn precisely how we could be supporting you at home.
