Promoting independence

Our aim is to minimise the time people spend in the most restrictive settings, such as hospital wards, and to maximise the time they spend at home and in their community wherever it is safe and effective to do so.

We are committed to the principle of 'least restrictive', in terms of our clinical practice to support people and we take every opportunity to reduce reliance on unnecessary interventions and treatments where evidence and experience tell us that they do not improve outcomes for people or, worse still, they risk adversely affecting a person's health and wellbeing.

On our inpatient wards, we strive to maximise independence through, for example, avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital, ensuring that the time spent in hospital is no longer than it needs to be and that supported discharge from hospital happens promptly.

We know that we need to be better at identifying people with complex emotional problems and those with neurodiversity needs - and making sure that the support we provide is tailored to their requirements and based on the best available evidence.

This includes connecting with community-based support and engaging with families and carers. This approach will support our efforts to avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital, ensure that admissions are personalised and goal-based and, working together across organisational boundaries, help facilitate prompt and safe discharge from hospital.

Our successful efforts to significantly increase the number of Peer Support Workers that we employ and our work to embrace practice that uses conversation and shared dialogue to explore issues with people and their families and wider social networks - are also helping to promote independence for the people we support.