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Independent living

Regaining your independence


The Social Care Reablement Service can help you to regain your independence after a hospital stay or illness.

The service supports you to build confidence and learn, or relearn, skills for daily living such as washing and dressing, preparing and cooking meals or getting out and about.

Who can use this service?

You may be eligible for up to three weeks of free Social Care Reablement if you have:

  • recently been admitted to hospital
  • had a period of illness or injury and are concerned about managing at home

We have friendly, professional teams across Devon who will listen to you, respect your views and standards and support you to reach your goals and achieve independence.

We will:

  • treat you with dignity, respect and courtesy
  • put you at the heart of choices about your life
  • maintain your privacy
  • give you good quality information
  • provide an individual, personal and confidential service with regular contact and monitoring
  • listen to your concerns or complaints

To find out if you’re eligible for the service phone Adult Social Care on 0345 155 1007.

How does the service work?

We will visit you at home to discuss which tasks you are now finding difficult to do. This could include things like:

  • washing and going to the toilet
  • preparing meals
  • moving around your home and outside
  • taking your medication

We will agree with you how we can support you to do these things independently. We can also provide information on where you might be able to find any extra support you might need, for example with shopping or cleaning.

Once we have established the main areas you would like to focus on, we will set manageable goals with a plan for how we can work with you toward independence. Your involvement in this process is really important. Your support workers will refer to these goals each time they visit you to talk about your progress.

The support worker stays in close contact with the rest of the team, and you will also have contact with reablement team leaders and, if needed, occupational therapists. With your consent, we can also liaise with other people who may be involved in supporting you; such as community physiotherapists or voluntary agencies.

Any information we have about your care needs is shared, used and stored securely and in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. You can find out more about this at Data protection.

When does the service end?

As you gain in confidence we will review your progress and, with your agreement, the amount of support will gradually be reduced.

Many people only need the service for a short period of time, although it can continue for up to three weeks. If at the end of the three weeks you still need some support in personal care tasks, we will make a social care referral for you to make sure that you continue to receive the support you need. This support would then be provided by a different team of carers.


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