Since 2016 we have been working with NHS England, along with Shared Lives schemes and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), to demonstrate how Shared Lives can support people with intermediate or long-term health needs.
Shared Lives excels in complex or challenging situations where there are a mixture of medical and non-medical needs. It can also support people with an ambition to leave Assessment and Treatment Units and can facilitate ‘reablement.’ It can delay or even prevent people needing to go to hospital at all!
People can live with a Shared Lives carer long-term, visit for a short break or receive day support. They benefit from a flexible and personalised approach and receive their healthcare and support with a family and community they know and have chosen.
In September 2019 we launched our new report: ‘Personalised Care and Shared Lives: Supporting people with health conditions to live good lives in ordinary family homes’ at the NHS Health and Care Expo. With a joint foreword by Alex Fox (CEO, Shared Lives Plus) and James Sanderson (Director of Personalised Care, NHS England), the report explores how Shared Lives can be practically implemented to support patients with a range of health needs, backed up by some heart-warming case studies.
We are currently engaging with health commissioners and practitioners, to explore how Shared Lives can be implemented further and deliver great patient outcomes. If you would like to discuss how Shared Lives can support health in your area, then please feel free to email us or call on 0151 227 3499.
Our new short video explains how Shared Lives can support patients with a range of health issues can be discharged safely from hospital into a family friendly home of their own choosing…
Shared Lives carers can help people like Ken who are well enough to leave hospital but not able to go home – perhaps their family isn’t around, or their house needs adapting to make it ready. Shared Lives carers continue the amazing work of occupational therapists and nurses for rehab, medication until patients are fully recovered!
Gerry White, Head Injury Team Leader, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, explains how Shared Lives supports people who don’t fit their usual support services.
For three years we worked with seven Shared Lives schemes and carers to find out how Shared Lives could be offered to continue recovering after being in hospital.
We’re delighted to release our Home from hospital – intermediate care guidance for Shared Lives schemes, carers, commissioners and professionals. Find the a section that’s relevant to you. A huge thank you to all our members who helped make this happen!
People who live with or visit Shared Lives carers enjoy life – make friends and improve their health. We’ve asked independent reviewers to find out how Shared Lives works and doesn’t work for people with health needs and potential and current Shared Lives carers and we will publish the report so everyone can learn from it. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has worked with NHS colleagues to offer Shared Lives to many more people.
A full evaluation of our pilot programme, where we worked with NHS England and seven CCGs to develop Shared Lives for healthcare needs, was undertaken by Cordis Bright with partners Social Finance, PPL and the Innovation Unit.
Please click here to read the report.
We also commissioned the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) to conduct an evaluation of our Shared Lives Intermediate Care pilot programme, you can read more here.
“Shared Lives is a real world example of the kind of highly cost-effective community and people-centred healthcare approaches which I believe will play a much bigger part in the NHS of the future, as more care moves out of hospitals. Whether it is helping someone with a learning disability to build a full life with a network of friends and family, or enabling an older person to recover from an operation in the peace and quiet of a familiar and welcoming environment, Shared Lives challenges assumptions about what kinds of healthcare can be delivered in an ordinary family home”
“Shared Lives is an excellent example of how councils, communities and other organisations can work together to support some of the most vulnerable in society.”
“Shared Lives is a fab, person centred approach.”
