Understanding the health and support needs of younger people with disabilities discharged from hospital to residential aged care

Current project

It is well acknowledged that inappropriate placement of younger people (aged <65 years) in residential aged care (RAC), often due to a lack of other options, contributes to a number of significant issues, including social isolation, lack of appropriate recreational activities, and a lack of support to actively participate in everyday and community-based activities. The This project will utilise existing linked datasets to identify the health, and support needs of younger people with disabilities discharged from NSW hospitals to RAC from 2001-2015. We will use these findings to identify ways to improve health outcomes for younger people discharged to RAC. The project will involve people with lived experience to ensure the work is relevant to the needs and wishes of younger people with disabilities. This project is funded by the Summer Foundation.

 

Project members: 

Prof Julian Trollor, Dr Rachel Cvejic, Dr Simone Reppermund, Dr Preeyaporn Srasuebkul, Prof Brian Draper, Dr. Adrienne Withall, Dr Tim Watkins, DR Adrian Walker.

 

Project aims:

The aims of our project are to:

  1. Determine the pathways for younger people with disabilities to RAC. We will examine clinical and sociodemographic predictors of discharge from hospital to RAC.
  2. Describe the health profile of younger people with disabilities discharged to RAC and compare this to a matched community-dwelling cohort.
  3. Compare short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes following hospitalisation for younger people with disabilities discharged to RAC to those of a matched community-dwelling cohort (e.g. time to and rates of representation to the emergency department (ED) and/or readmission and risk of death).

 

Where the project is at:

We have published our research on Aim 1 and are drafting a paper for publication on Aim 2. We have also generated some resources for people with lived experience and health professionals.

 

Resources generated from the project

Information for people with lived experience – Plain English version
Information for people with lived experience – Easy Read version
Information for hospital-based health professionals
Information for community-based health professionals

 

Related People
Chair of Intellectual Disability Mental Health, and Head, Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry
UNSW Medicine, School of Psychiatry, Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN)