New or worsened disabilities in functional, cognitive, or mental health following an intensive care unit (ICU) stay are referred to as post intensive care syndrome (PICS). PICS has not been described in older adults receiving home care. Our aim was to examine the relationship between length of ICU stay and PICS among older adults receiving home care. We expected that patients in the ICU for 3 days or longer would demonstrate significantly more disability in all three domains on follow-up than those not in the ICU. A secondary aim was to identify patient characteristics increasing the odds of disability.

Aim:The purpose of this article was to highlight the need to provide support for patients and relatives following critical illness and discharge from hospital and how this can be improved through the establishment of user support groups.
Background:Critical illness predisposes patients to extended physical and psychological ill health with the potential for a reduced quality of life. The authors’ personal experience, patient feedback and current literature suggested that there was a need for further support during their recovery.
Methods:Building on an existing formal follow-up service, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Support Team for Ex-Patients established a patient-centred forum, where patients and relatives could share experiences with others who had also been through critical illness by holding drop-in sessions. Feedback from those attending these flexible and informal sessions indicates that support was needed and that patients and families have found benefit in sharing experiences with others who can empathise, having been through critical illness themselves.
Conclusions:Our experience has shown there is a need that can be met simply with minimal investment of time and funding but that addresses a gap in patient support that otherwise goes unmet. Although this was a service development in one local area, it could be adapted to ICU patients and relatives more widely

Since critical care began over 50 years ago, there have been tremendous advances in the science and practice that allow more severely ill and injured patients to survive. Each year, millions of people are discharged back to the community. The recognition of long-term consequences for ICU survivors and their families is a growing concern. Critical care practitioners have always known that the patients have a long road to recovery after discharge from the ICU. In the 2 past decades, research has revealed how remarkably common and devastating long-term consequences of critical illness can be and how much some patients and their families suffer (1–9). These consequences in patients are referred to as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) and in families as post-intensive care syndrome-family (PICS-F) (1). The research findings are disturbing and a source of dis-tress to critical care practitioners. In response, they are working hard to identify the risk factors for PICS and are rapidly implementing ways to mitigate their impact. Although the critical care community is becoming increasingly aware of PICS, patients, families, and the post hospital care community need more information. They are the ones who are deal most directly PICS and PICS-F.There are three key emerging concepts driving these initiatives: a focus on safe transitions and hand offs, an emphasis on family-centered care, and the acceptance that critical care is defined by the whole episode of care, not just the ICU stay. It is clear that those in the field of critical care have a responsibility to increase the awareness and to work with those who care for patients post-ICU to identify and treat the consequences of critical illness in patients and families.