The Outreach team provides nursing support at home for children and young people with exceptional health care needs in Edinburgh and the Lothian area. The team cares for children and young people who have an agreed package of care in place to enable them to remain at home and minimise the time they need to spend in hospital.
Care packages are agreed by the Lothian Exceptional Needs Support Group (LENS Group) and are funded jointly by health, education and social work. Once a package has been agreed, Outreach nurses and support workers will contact the family to arrange an initial visit to the family home, to begin delivering the care needed for each child or young person. This might sometimes include respite care, which gives children and young people the experience of visiting Sunndach or Calareidh, our two respite houses while allowing families a short break from the demands of care.
Each child or young person’s needs will be different and the care put in place will always be tailored according to what they – and the family – needs. Having nurses and healthcare support workers visit the family home regularly can take some time to adapt to. Outreach and care at home means that care is shared between the family and health professionals and before it starts, the responsibilities and practical steps will be discussed together, with time for questions.
Each family will be given information about the package agreed for their child, the staff that will be visiting at home and details of a main point of contact (usually a Team Leader). There can be a lot of information at first, but families will be supported as they adjust and settle into the visits. Nursing and healthcare staff often form strong bonds with the patients and families that they care for and will always aim to provide the best possible care in all circumstances.
More information can be found in this leaflet for families.
Home Care Package Information
