Stage 1 - Started January 2007 - Completed June 2007
Stage 2 - Started January 2008 – Completed March 2010

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers (PRTC) commissioned Acton Shapiro to do two pieces of work.

Stage 1:
A scoping review of the literature on services for carers of people being discharged from hospital and also a mapping study of services provided for these carers by the 87 PRTC Carers Centres in England.

Stage 2:
An evaluation of the ‘Trailblazer’ projects initiated by two PRTC Carers Centres in order to try out ideas identified as potentially beneficial in Stage 1.

The research aimed to examine what effect support for carers at the time of hospital discharge had on:

• avoiding delayed discharges
• reducing readmission rates
• improving the rehabilitation/recovery of the care recipient
• improving the carer’s experience of the process of discharge
• enabling the carer to continue caring. 

A report on the first stage of the project was produced in June 2007 and the report for the second stage will be available in April 2010.