How the Red Cross can help in Northern Ireland
Red Cross staff and volunteers are embedded in the hospital discharge lounges where they work closely with nursing staff and the bed flow management team to ensure a seamless discharge process for patients.
“Because we’re right there in the hospital and the nursing staff know what we can offer, we’re able to help them assess which patients might be ready to go home if they had a little bit of extra support,” Marina Kelly explains.
“It might be that their pharmacy script isn’t quite ready, and we’re authorised to deliver medicines to them at home. Or they might just need one of our drivers to help them down to our car, drive them home and help them up the steps and inside.
“Our volunteers are great at helping reduce their anxiety, because they know they’re not alone and there’s someone there who cares.
“Our volunteers don’t just leave people home. We stick around until their confidence comes back. We make sure that they’re warm enough and have everything they need and we can offer up to six weeks of support to help improve their resilience so that they know they can manage. This makes it much less likely that they’ll end up back in hospital.”