If you need help to recover after leaving hospital, or after a fall, injury or illness at home, you may be offered temporary care called intermediate care (also known as rehabilitation, reablement and recovery services).
Intermediate care is short-term care that helps you recover and regain independence. It may include exercises to restore movement and function, and help to return to doing daily activities like cooking and washing.
You'll have a needs assessment to help decide if intermediate care is right for you.
This type of free care will only be provided for as long as you need it – for example, 1 or 2 weeks, or longer, usually for a maximum of 6 weeks. It will depend on your needs, circumstances and the progress you make towards reaching your goals.
When you can get free, short-term care and how to get it
After leaving hospital
Staff will involve you and your family and carers in planning to leave hospital.
After leaving, you may be offered intermediate care to help you recover at home or somewhere else, such as in a community hospital or care home. Most people receive intermediate care at home.
You will be assessed to see if you need intermediate care. If you do, care will be put in place quickly with a plan to help you reach your goals.
If you've been sectioned (detained for treatment in a psychiatric hospital) you have a right to mental health aftercare when you leave hospital.
After a fall, injury or illness at home
If you need help to recover after a fall, injury or illness at home, speak to your GP surgery or local authority adult social care service about intermediate care.
They may be able to arrange for someone to come to your home to assess your needs and look at what could help you stay independent at home for longer.
Contact NHS 111 if you think you need help right now and cannot contact your GP surgery.
If you're over 18, your local urgent community response (UCR) service may be able to provide you with support at home. This will be put in place quickly and will usually last for less than 2 days.
What care you will get
If you're offered intermediate care, a team from the NHS and adult social care will help you recover and regain independence.
This will be tailored to your needs and might include things like exercises, practising getting dressed, preparing a meal, and getting up and down stairs.
Staff might care for you at first but will help you practise doing things on your own.
Equipment, technology and home adaptations may be used to support your recovery.
Your team might include:
- an occupational therapist
- a physiotherapist
- a speech and language therapist
- a social worker
- nurses
- doctors
- care workers
They will start with an assessment that looks at what you can do. You will agree your goals together based on what matters to you and set out a plan to help you achieve them.
You will regularly review your plan with your team and it may be changed if necessary.
What happens when free, short-term care finishes
While you receive intermediate care, your team will work with you and your family or carers to agree what happens next.
This should include:
- long-term care you might need, such as home help
- how you can refer yourself again if you need to
- what you should do if something goes wrong
- information about other types of support or equipment that might help
Some people may need ongoing rehabilitation in the community.
After a period of recovery, if you have long-term care needs, you may have a care needs assessment organised by your local council.
If you have a regular unpaid carer, they are entitled to have a carer's assessment to see what might help them.
A financial assessment may also be carried out to see if your local council will pay towards your long-term care and whether you will have to pay towards the cost.
Some people with complex, long-term health needs may be eligible for NHS continuing healthcare, which will be assessed by a multidisciplinary team.