To find out if you are eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, you must be assessed by a team of health and social care professionals who are knowledgeable about your care needs.

We know it can be a complex and nerve-wracking process, so we’ve put together some handy hints to help you prepare.

By arriving at the assessment with everything you need, and mentally prepared, you’ll give yourself the best chance of a positive experience and outcome.

1. Gather up-to-date evidence

Discuss the assessment in advance with your care home manager or care agency, asking them to ensure that all care plans, risk assessments and daily records are fully up-to-date. Check that they have recorded any significant incidents such as falls, seizures or episodes of challenging behaviour.

2. Ask for a care plan review

If you have time, ask your care home manager or care agency for a review of your care plan. Use this review to check the detail and accuracy of each element of your care that are considered in the assessment paperwork – called the Decision Support Tool (DST). Use the section Making Sense of the Domains, in our free Navigational Toolkit to help you think about each of these areas and you can download a blank DST here.

3. Detail complex issues

If there is an area of care (or ‘domain’) that is particularly intense or complex or unpredictable such as challenging behaviour or management of nutrition, it may be useful to ask the care home manager or care agency to keep a detailed one-week log of all events related to that particular need in the lead up to the assessment. For example, if challenging behaviour is difficult for the care staff to manage, ask them to keep a ‘Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory’, an ABC chart, or similar.

4. Make a diary

If you are the representative of the person who is to be assessed, keep a written record of your visits to the person in a diary, and encourage other people who visit to do the same. Each time you visit, make a short and succinct record of how the person appeared to be – physically, mentally and emotionally. Did they greet you? How did they look? Were they awake or asleep? Did you feed them a meal? If so, did they eat it and how long did it take? Were they verbally or physically aggressive at all? Did they seem agitated? Did they appear tearful or anxious? Did they communicate with you verbally or through gestures? Did you notice anything unusual?

5. Keep the paperwork

Keep all of the paperwork you have been sent from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) relating to your Continuing Healthcare screening Checklist and Full Assessment.

6. Jot down questions

Make a list of any questions you want to ask your coordinating assessor about the assessment process, timescales for completion, care planning, completing the Decision Support Tool or anything else you would like to know.

7. Use available resources

Read our free Navigational Toolkit to give yourself a comprehensive understanding of the assessment process, the Continuing Healthcare criteria, and how to give yourself – or your loved one – the best possible chance of eligibility. Register for your free Toolkit now.

If you have any questions about the assessment process or the points above, contact our free Information and Advice Service

Should you feel you need extra support to prepare, and even an expert advocate to attend your assessment with you, talk to us about our Assessment Support service.