Urgent Community Response team (UCR)
Urgent Community Response Teams are community-based and their primary focus is to provide short-term support to enable a person to stay safe and well in their own home.
Being able to stay in your familiar environment during a period of ill health or following a hospital admission has been shown to enhance your recovery, and can also provide a dignified and compassionate way to receive end-of-life care. The Urgent Community Response Team aims to offer clinical and care support to help you to stay safe at home with your family or usual support network, removing the added worry and stress of repeated trips to hospital.
As well as collaborating with patients, their families and carers, we work with a wide range of professionals and different services based in both the community and hospital settings to coordinate the care you require at home.
Our service can be broken down into:
Short-term intervention following hospital discharge
You may need extra support whilst you settle back home after a stay in hospital. The UCR Team can visit you at home on discharge to assess what you can do for yourself when you are in your familiar home environment and with your existing network of support.
We can offer rehabilitation support and advice, assess for equipment that can help you maintain your independence, and also assess for any ongoing care needs.
Short-term intervention during a period of ill health
You may need extra support for a short while during a period of illness or if your long-term condition suddenly worsens. If your medical needs can be safely managed at home, the UCR Team can offer short-term support to help you to regain your previous level of independence, therefore avoiding hospital admission.
You may need this level of care for illnesses such as a urine or chest infection that has affected your usual level of mobility and ability at home, or it may have affected your cognitive function or you may develop short-term confusion due to the infection.
More about our Northern services and Eastern services
Northern services
Our Northern services also offer Urgent Community Response services across the local communities, covering three separate clusters including Barnstaple, BLIS (Braunton, Ilfracombe and South Molton), and Torridge (Bideford, Torrington and Holsworthy). Our multidisciplinary team operates differently from our Eastern services detailed below, but you can find out more about this by contacting your usual healthcare professional.
Eastern services
UCR are a community-based team working to help people living in Devon. Our teams can include Nurses, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Pharmacy Technicians, Paramedics, Social Care Assessors, Coordinators, and Support Workers. Any team member involved in your care will introduce themselves and explain their role.
We want to help you to stay living safely and independently at home, surrounded by your network of support, for as long as possible. The most effective way to regain your independence following a period of ill health is to understand what you can do for yourself and use your existing support network. We will encourage you to explore what basic living aids may help you to remain more independent at home, or assess for equipment which may help your family or carer support your care needs.
In the meantime, the support workers in the team can offer support with care activities, but with a rehabilitative emphasis to encourage you to do as much as you can for yourself and progress your abilities and independence as much as possible. We can also offer advice about community services which may be able to help. Each day we will review what care support you have from the team, aiming to decrease the level of support needed as your rehabilitation progresses and your abilities and independence improves.
On discharge from this service, if you have needs that cannot be met by your own support network, or by using basic equipment, we will work with you to find ongoing care and/or support through the volunteer sector or by referring to Social Care. If you are in the position to arrange and pay for care yourself, you will be asked to do that, and support can be provided to make these arrangements if required.
Once your urgent care need has settled, we will encourage and can support you to organise alternative arrangements for on-going care so that the ‘urgent’ care is then available to others who may need it.
Our locations (Eastern services)
We provide our service across Exeter, East and Mid Devon:
- Honiton, Ottery St Mary and Cranbrook
- Seaton, Axminster and Sidmouth
- Woodbury, Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton
- Tiverton and Cullompton
- Exeter South and West
- Exeter Central and East
- Crediton, Moretonhampstead and Okehampton
How long are we involved in your care?
We provide short-term support to help you to meet your immediate and urgent health and wellbeing needs, enabling you to be as independent as possible at home. The length of time we provide support varies from person to person dependent on your needs and circumstances.
What happens if you need longer-term support?
Should you feel you need ongoing support we will provide advice to help you to help yourself. If your needs cannot be met from your immediate support network, local community groups or voluntary sector, a referral can be made to Care Direct (the council’s adult social care service).
Care Direct can offer advice to help you to source a care agency. If you eligible for ongoing support, they will arrange for you to have financial assessment to decide what contribution, if any, you should make to the costs and they will talk to you about how any ongoing services can be arranged.
For more informaiton on Social care support Care Direct can be contacted by phone 0345 1551 007 or visit www.devon.gov.uk.