What’s going to happen to us next?
What happens to people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people when they leave ‘long-stay’ hospital settings, and what sorts of support help people to stay out of hospital?
Some 2,000 people with learning disabilities and autistic people are patients in hospital settings, often for many years with no sense of when they might be able to leave. Lots of people are trying to help them come out of hospital and lead more ordinary lives. However, we know little about:
- What happens to people when they leave hospital
- What types of support help them to stay healthy and well
Hospitals have told us that they sometimes work with someone for 5 years or more – but then don’t know anything that happens to them next. This means that we can’t possibly know whether we’re supporting people well or how well our plans have worked in practice.
This study follows on from our research into people’s experiences in hospital, called Why are we stuck in hospital.
This new research would try to meet people and the staff who support them as they are coming out of hospital, then meet them again each year over two years. We will work with the person to see what their life is like, where they live, what sort of support they are getting and the connections they have to other people and their local community.
Our research
Research objectives
Research objectives
- What happens to people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people after leaving ‘long-stay’ hospitals?
- To what extent are the professional judgements of hospital-based staff as to how people will progress after hospital borne out (and how does this compare to the views of people/families/community services)?
- To what extent does the nature of the initial discharge influence what happens to people in the community?
- What supports help people to have a good quality of life and to remain as independent as possible?
- How do people’s quality of life and networks change over time after they leave hospital, what does this cost and how does it compare to the costs of being in hospital?
Outputs and impact
Outputs and impact
We will:
- Hold a national launch, inviting policy/practice leads, people and families to an event which shares key findings/implications.
- Produce accessible findings for people/families.
- Send a national policy guide to all social care/health leaders in England.
- Produce a free training video hosted by SCIE.
- Disseminate via articles in the professional/academic press and academic/practice conferences.
Research team
Research team
Prof. Jon Glasby (PI), University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡
Prof. Robin Miller, University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡
Anne-Marie Glasby, Changing our lives
Humera Plappert, University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡
Zoe Rubenstein, University Â鶹¾«Ñ¡
Funders
Funders
Funder: NIHR School for Social Care Research