Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

11.17 Intermediate care services are usually provided to patients, often older people, after leaving hospital or when they are at risk of being sent to hospital. The services are a link between places such as hospitals and people's homes, and between different areas of the health and social care system - community services, hospitals, GPs and social care. 'Reablement' is a particular type of intermediate care, which has a stronger focus on helping the person to regain skills and capabilities to reduce their needs, in particular through the use of therapy or minor adaptations. There is a tendency for the terms 'reablement', 'rehabilitation' and 'intermediate care' to be used interchangeably. The National Audit of Intermediate Care categorises 4 types of intermediate care:

- crisis response - services providing short-term care (up to 48 hours);
- home-based intermediate care - services provided to people in their own homes by a team with different specialities but mainly health professionals such as nurses and therapists;
- bed-based intermediate care - services delivered away from home, for example, in a community hospital; and
- reablement - services to help people live independently, provided in the person's own home by a team of mainly social care professionals (see chapter 2 - preventing, reducing or delaying needs).

11.18 Three of the 4 types of intermediate care have historically been clinician-led and provided by health staff, with reablement being provided by local authorities. However, these are not concrete, mutually-exclusive categories - and, furthermore, with greater integration and co-operation between health and local authorities, there should be greater use of qualified staff from health and social care working together to provide intermediate care.