Inspire Programme

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What is the Inspire Programme?

A stay in critical care can be a stressful experience, and may have long term effects on your health and wellbeing. This applies to both patients, and their close family. It can take a long time for you to recover after having a critical illness. Recovery can be easier if you get the right support.

The Inspire programme aims to find out about any problems you have been having as a result of your stay in critical care. We want to make sure you get the right support to help with these problems.

You can bring a member of your family or a carer along to the Inspire programme. They might also be having some difficulties, like changes in their mood, sleep, work and finances while giving support.

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You will receive support from:

Doctors
Nurses
Occupational therapists
Physiotherapists
Pharmacists
Psychologists

We aim to support you in your recovery by listening to your difficulties, giving advice and ensuring that you have the help in place that you need.

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How to take part in Inspire

You will be referred to the Inspire programme by one of the critical care team that looked after you while you were in hospital.

You will receive a letter a few months after you are discharged from the hospital to invite you to come along to the programme.

We will ask you to complete some questionnaires to measure how you are managing. These questionnaires will be repeated at the end of the Inspire programme to understand how you have progressed.

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Programme Outline

The Inspire programme runs for 4 weeks, and includes 3 individual appointments and 3 group support sessions.

Your individual appointments will be with:

A doctor and nurse, will explain what happened during your critical care stay and answer your questions. They will write down what you have discussed with them, and you will be given this to keep.
A pharmacist will review the medicines that you are taking. They will tell you if these are still appropriate and will see if you need to be prescribed anything else.
A physiotherapist or an occupational therapist. They will look at any physical difficulties you might be having and how these are affecting your everyday activities. They will help you to set goals for things that you want to be able to do. They will make a plan with you about how you will achieve your goals.

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Groups

We encourage the people in the group sessions to support each other. Patients and carers often find that other people may have had similar problems to themselves.

Some find it helpful to share their stories in a relaxed sociable environment, although there is never any pressure to do this. It is up to you if you want to do this and we will help to guide you. Everything that you say in the group is confidential.

Group topics include activity limitations, weakness, managing breathlessness and fatigue, brain fog, and emotional reactions after an intensive care stay.

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After Inspire

We will get in touch with you 3 – 6 months after the programme has finished and ask you to repeat the questionnaires to see how you are progressing.

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Rehabilitation Assessment

After a stay in critical care you may have:

A drop in your fitness level
Aches and pains in your muscles and joints
Problems with balance and falls
A loss in strength
Difficulty with day to day activity
Money worries and problems with return to work
Poor memory and concentration
Fatigue (extreme tiredness)

During your rehab assessment these issues will be discussed, and your therapist will support you to make a plan to achieve your rehab goals.

Depending on your difficulties your rehab plan might include:

Exercises that improve strength, balance, and fitness
Information on managing return to work and daily roles
Use of activity diaries and pacing to manage your fatigue (tiredness)
Breathing pattern practice
Ways to improve your memory and concentration

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Pharmacy

The medicines which you usually take for your long term health conditions (like heart and respiratory diseases) may have been stopped when you were taken to hospital because you were so unwell. A review of your medicines after you are better is important to make sure you are taking all the medicines you need.

The pharmacist will look at the medicines you are taking, to make sure that you have all the medicines you need, the dose of each medicine is correct for you, and find out if you are having any medicine related problems.

The pharmacist will make sure you understand the reasons for taking the medicines you are prescribed.

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Critical Care stay summary

A doctor and a nurse will explain what happened when you were a patient in intensive care. They will give details about:

why you needed to be cared for in the intensive care ward
any procedures or operations you had
the medicines that were needed to help you
any complications you had

You may not remember much about your intensive care stay because you may have been given some medicine to make you sleepy, to help your body rest and recover. Some people have a few memories about their time in intensive care, and these can be strange and sometimes a bit frightening.

You will have the chance to ask the doctor and nurse any questions you have about this time, and explain anything you don’t understand or remember.

If you wish, you will be given a copy of your summary to take away with you after your appointment.

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