Online Course | Advancing Therapist Roles in Discharge

Respiratory Discharge

Mon 14 Sep 2026 09:00-15:40

Online Course, 5.5 CPD Hours

Practical strategies to support rehabilitation-led discharge and home-first care

Specially designed for occupational therapists, physiotherapists, rehabilitation teams and wider discharge professionals, this interactive online workshop will explore how you can strengthen your role in discharge decision-making while balancing patient autonomy, safety and operational pressures.

Led by Cathy Daffada who will be joined by colleagues from North Bristol NHS Trust, the day will focus on the evolving role of therapists across acute, virtual ward and community pathways, developing practical approaches to rehabilitation-led discharge and home-first care.

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Home First: Advancing the Therapist’s Role in Discharge

Online 5.5 CPD hours From £299+VAT

Develop your service knowledge

Practical approaches to improving discharge pathways and therapist-led decision-making

This interactive online workshop has been developed to help therapists explore realistic approaches to improving discharge planning, strengthening multidisciplinary working and supporting patients safely at home. Key learning outcomes include:

Exploring the therapist’s role in discharge planning from admission onwards
Understanding how home-first approaches are reshaping rehabilitation and discharge pathways
Examining how therapists can balance patient autonomy, risk and professional responsibility
Identifying practical strategies to improve transitions between acute and community services
Strengthening confidence in rehabilitation-led decision-making and MDT communication
Learning from case studies across frailty, pulmonary rehabilitation and ICU recovery pathways
Reflecting on operational pressures, delayed discharge and barriers to home-first care

Live online learning

Interactive discussions and practical case study learning

This educational online workshop will combine presentations, facilitated discussion and case study learning that reflect on current discharge challenges and identify practical improvements you can make within your own organisations. On the day, you will have the opportunity to:

Join online with occupational therapists, physiotherapists and rehabilitation professionals from across the UK
Take part in interactive discussions exploring operational pressures, autonomy and discharge risk
Ask questions and gain practical insight from Cathy Daffada, Associate Director for Integrated Discharge, and expert colleagues
Explore real-world examples of rehabilitation-led discharge pathways across acute and community settings
Reflect on barriers within your own service and identify realistic changes you can implement immediately

This course is available for in-house training

9:00	Join, technical support and instructions
9:30	Workshop leader’s introduction Cathy Daffada, Associate Director for Integrated Discharge at North Bristol NHS Trust, will be joined by colleagues from the Trust
The evolving therapist role
9:40	Exploring the therapist’s role in planning discharge from admission Setting an estimated discharge date: embedding discharge thinking from day one Balancing the therapist’s responsibility: prioritising independence, autonomy and care closer to home Understanding the impact of delayed discharge on patient flow and outcomes
10:10	Questions and answers with Cathy Daffada and colleagues
10:20	Interactive discussion: balancing rehabilitation priorities with operational pressures How has the therapist role evolved in your organisation? What enables therapists to take a greater role in discharge leadership? What should therapy in acute care prioritise?
10:40	Screen break
Embedding a Home First ethos
10:50	Rehabilitation-led discharge pathways in practice: delivering a Home First approach The role of therapy in the acute setting: enabling recovery, function and discharge readiness How community environments can improve patient engagement, confidence and recovery outcomes Supporting seamless transitions to community services: practical strategies to reduce fragmentation
11:20	Questions and answers with Cathy Daffada and colleagues
11:30	Interactive discussion: barriers to adopting a Home First culture What organisational and cultural factors influence adoption of a Home First ethos? Where does Home First break down in practice? When is hospital truly the safest place?
11:50	Case study insights: Mapping a patient journey across acute, virtual ward and community settings Featuring examples from frailty, pulmonary rehabilitation and ICU recovery How virtual wards and hospital-at-home models are reshaping rehabilitation and discharge pathways Impact of rehabilitation models delivering care outside traditional hospital settings
12:20	Questions and answers with Cathy Daffada and colleagues
12:30	Lunch break
Decision-making in complex discharge
1:00	Difficult decision-making: patient autonomy vs risk in discharge planning Addressing the legal and ethical realities of supporting patient choice while managing perceived risk How therapists can navigate tensions between professional responsibility and patient independence Identifying learning from patient safety investigations and improving communication practices
1:30	Multidisciplinary working and consistent messaging: making the right decision as a team Empowering therapists within MDT discharge decision-making Creating aligned communication across teams: the importance of consistent discharge messaging When teams disagree about discharge readiness: handling difficult MDT conversations constructively
2:00	Questions and answers with Cathy Daffada and colleagues
2:10	Case study scenario discussion: Responding to complex discharge dilemmas Managing family expectations and concerns: can therapists ever eliminate risk? Duty of care vs patient choice: supporting patients who choose discharge against clinical advice Decision-making with kindness versus purely pragmatic decision-making
2:30	Screen break
Best practice rehabilitation pathways
2:40	Examining successful rehabilitation models: supporting complex discharge needs What defines best practice in rehabilitation-led discharge? Case study: Therapy-led discharge models with specialist pathway integration Case study: ICU recovery pathways supporting continuity into the community
3:10	Questions and answers with Cathy Daffada and colleagues
3:20	Group exercise: Identifying transferable ideas for your own settings What changes could improve your discharge approach tomorrow? Looking longer term, what cultural shifts are needed within teams? Set in place your action plan: key commitments and shared learning points
3:40	Close of workshop

Your expert speakers

Cathy Daffada and colleagues from North Bristol NHS Trust bring extensive experience across discharge planning, patient flow and integrated care pathways, sharing practical insights to help you strengthen your Home First approaches, improve patient flow and support rehabilitation-led discharge across acute and community services.

Cathy Daffada

Job Title:

Associate Director for Integrated Discharge

Organisation

North Bristol NHS Trust

Biography

Cathy Daffada is Associate Director for Integrated Discharge at North Bristol NHS Trust. She has extensive experience working across discharge planning, patient flow and integrated care pathways, supporting collaboration between acute, community and social care services. Her work focuses on improving discharge processes, developing Home First approaches and strengthening transitions of care to help patients move safely and effectively through the health and care system.

Drawing on both her extensive experience as a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist and her practical experience of leading discharge improvement programmes and system-wide working, Cathy brings valuable insight into balancing patient choice, risk management and operational pressures while supporting rehabilitation-led discharge and community-based care.

Pricing Structure

£399+VAT for one NHS or public sector place
£299+VAT each for two NHS or public sector places
£699+VAT for commercial places
Commercial companies are also invited to sponsor this day. Please email Vanessa Jarman for further details

You or a colleague can claim the group NHS discount, for booking two or more places across this and any other subsequent event, providing the same pricing structure applies. Click here to view the full list of up coming events.

For group bookings of five or more people, please email our delegate support team or call 01732 897788 for further details

This course is available for in-house training

Available as a bespoke course to teams of 25 people or more. Please do contact us if you would like this training delivered exclusively to your team, with the content developed to drill into the specific needs of your service. Please email Sarah Kemm or call 01732 897788 for further details.

Reservations

You can reserve a no-obligation place whilst you apply for funding

How this online forum will work

Once you have booked your place, SBK Healthcare will correspond with you using the email address you provided at the time of booking. Within one week of the online training taking place, you will be sent final details of the course including a full agenda, programme timings and your Zoom joining instructions. This email will include a joining link that can be used to access the course.

If you have not received your email two days before your event, do check your junk folder then contact SBK Healthcare on 01732 897788.

Practice sessions are available. If you would like to attend a zoom practice session before the event takes place, please let us know by emailing bookings@sbk-healthcare.co.uk. You will have the opportunity to meet an SBK Healthcare staff member who will ensure you are able to access zoom, that your camera and microphone work and you are fully set-up for the day. This is optional but if you do wish to attend, please use the same device that you plan to use on the day.

On the day, when registration starts, you will be able to join the course by initially entering a waiting room when there may be a short wait. The forum will include screen breaks, as well as topic themed interactive sessions which will take place in the breakout rooms.

Click here to view the specially created 5-minute video that will walk you through how to get the most out of attending your SBK Healthcare interactive online forum.

Terms and conditions

Certification of attendance

A certificate for Continuing Professional Development will be given to every fully registered participant who completes the course, as a record of your continuing professional training and development.

Registration fees

You will be sent an instant payment option or invoice on registration. Your payment is required in advance. If your fee has not been received prior to the event, and you are not able to provide a PO or proof of payment, you will be asked to make a credit or debit card payment on the day.

Modify registration

To let us know if your details are not correct when you have already registered, please email the bookings team.

Cancellations and substitutions

A full refund of fees will be made only for cancellations received within the first 48 hours of the booking being made. Notice of cancellation must be received in writing by emailing the bookings team at SBK Healthcare. Should you need to cancel your registration after this date, the registration fee remains payable in its entirety although a substitution will be accepted and conference documentation will be provided. Substitution attendees for delegates unable to attend after registering are acceptable at any time.

Event changes

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the conference organisers to alter the content, speakers or the timing of the programme. We will endeavour to keep you abreast of such changes but any unavoidable change to the format will not constitute a reason to refund the fee. Should the event be postponed, we will endeavour to reschedule the event. If, for reasons beyond the control of the conference organiser, the event is cancelled, a full refund will be made. We do not accept any liability for any incurred costs resulting from a postponement or cancellation.

Privacy notice

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Who should attend?

Connect with peers improving rehabilitation-led discharge and home-first care

This workshop offers an opportunity to connect with occupational therapists, physiotherapists and rehabilitation professionals from across the UK, share experiences and explore practical approaches to improving discharge pathways and home-first care within pressured health and care systems. Designed for:

Occupational Therapists
Physiotherapists
Rehabilitation Leads
Discharge Coordinators
Community Rehabilitation Teams
Frailty Teams
Virtual Ward Teams
Allied Health Professionals
Integrated Discharge Teams
Therapy Service Leads and Managers

If you have a team that is 25 people or more, you can have a bespoke course delivered online to your team alone. Please contact Sarah Kemm or telephone 01732 897788.

Past attendee feedback

“The whole day was excellent”
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust

“Really well organised. No technical glitches which often make online learning difficult”
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

“Day flowed so well, well done!”
University Hospitals Birmingham

“All topics covered extremely well. A lot to think about and take away to hopefully improve the service our patients receive”
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

Why sponsor?

Our role at SBK Healthcare is to bring industry together with healthcare professionals so that you can educate and inform your audience. These trail-blazing NHS delivery forums offer dedicated presentations, Q&A, networking and discussion time, each sponsor will be fully immersed into the event and able to effectively engage with your NHS audience.

Your event, managed by us

SBK Healthcare also provides in-house forums. Working closely with you as the client we can research, produce, market and deliver the conference or online forum that best suits the audience and meets your goals.

Home First: Advancing the Therapist’s Role in Discharge