Home recovery made easier thanks to Trust service
Our Home First Service helps prevent admission to acute hospitals as well as supporting earlier discharge. This makes recovery at home for people with health problems easier.
Home First's dedicated team of nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and support workers, supports people to recover in their own home.
The service was set up to provide short-term rehabilitation and reablement to help people recover at home safely.
The key message is through providing rehabilitation and reablement in your own home achieves good outcomes.
In one of the team's most recent cases they supported Dave in his family home near St Austell.
Following a referral from his GP, Dave began receiving home visits from Home First Team.
Dave, a talented carpenter, suffered a stroke in 2000 at the age of 29. It left him blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other. He is also unable to use his left arm and hand, and had to spend time in a wheelchair.
We needed help, admitted Dave.
And that help came in the form of Home First.
Carpentry is Dave's passion. And thanks to help from the team, Dave's recovery is slowly allowing him to begin carpentry projects again.
"When I had my stroke originally, the hospital moved me around, but having this episode again at home with my mum and dad, we had no means of moving about. It was quite serious. Without Home First we would not have managed." Dave
Dave's mum, Jackie, says the team has provided the support they desperately needed.
"Dave could not sit up, he could not eat, he could not drink because I could not move him. He could not use the bathroom.
"Within 2 days Dave had a hospital bed, he was able to sit up. The team came and helped him in the shower. Without them we would have gone under because I physically could not move Dave." Jackie, Dave's mum.
Dave is not the only person to have benefited from Home First. Many people across Cornwall facing similarly challenging times are being helped by the service's dedicated team.
Stuart lives in St Austell with his wife, Sue.
He was in hospital for 4 weeks, with water retention in his legs and kidney and heart problems.
When Stuart was allowed to return home he was cared for by Sue.
After finding it difficult caring for him on her own, Sue was informed about the Home First Service.
"I was very pleased with them. It has helped us immensely. It meant that Stuart was able to manage on his own when I'm not here.
"Without them it would have been a real struggle for me and Stuart. It was a lifeline for us both.
"It just takes the pressure off me, knowing they were there if I needed them." Sue
Stuart, is a big rugby fan who played over 200 games for St Austell Rugby Club.
"Sue has been doing a lot and it's just been us.
"Home First have been really good. I cannot fault it.
"The physio has been really good. They get you doing exercises and moving about. It has helped me a lot." Stuart