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Some older Australians are entering aged care earlier than they may otherwise need, due to a lack of support for healthy ageing or ability to manage their chronic conditions in the community.
The Healthy Ageing, Early Intervention Program funds community care providers to undertake activities that support older persons to live at home longer. It aims to promote healthy ageing, slow decline and support the ongoing management of chronic conditions. The program also involves:
- co-design and implementation of targeted interventions to prevent, identify and reduce chronic disease and health issues, avoid inappropriate hospital admissions and improve health outcomes for the elderly
- supporting collaborative approaches between multidisciplinary teams and primary care providers
- expanding existing healthy ageing programs
- educating primary health care providers on how to connect senior Australians with necessary psychosocial, health, social and welfare supports
- educating family members or carers on how to manage an older person’s health.
Over the last year, CHN commissioned the following 6 providers to deliver the requested services:
a) CAHMA’s Healthy and Creative Ageing Program
The Healthy and Creative Ageing Program brought together around 60 participants, who were over 40 years old and have lived experience of drug use and other types of marginalisation. CAHMA provided participants wrap around support services such as information and education, case management, transport to attend health appointments, counselling and a creative art social program. The creative sessions involved ceramic classes and printmaking sessions, with excursions to exhibitions and galleries. At the end of the art sessions, CAHMA held an art exhibition to showcase all the participant’s artwork they have been working on, with over 50 people present at the launch with many more attending throughout the week.
b) Annecto’s Social and Nutrition Workshops
Annecto completed 3 rounds of their Social and Nutrition Workshops over 7 weeks to empower participants living with chronic health conditions to better manage their health through improved nutrition. Throughout the sessions they covered the importance of nutrition on chronic disease, how to interpret nutritional information on food items and skills to prepare nutritious meals. A survey conducted showed that:
- 83% said the workshops were helpful in their daily lives.
- 83% said their expectations were met
- 100% enjoyed the workshops
- 53% were interested in continuing to meet as a social group, 29% were unsure and 18% were not interested.
Testimonial
“We learnt that offering events with a purpose resulted in a better take up, rather than simply offering a social get together. It seemed to lessen people’s anxiety about having to ‘make new friends’ in a new setting. It gave them something to talk about that wasn’t the usual small talk. We saw some great friendships develop,” said a worker involved in the program.
c) Carers ACT’s Care Tribes
Carers ACT created an innovative online platform to link carers for individuals with dementia to form informal support groups called Caring Together. They successfully matched 40 carers and their care recipients into 10 care tribes. The care tribes then participated in face-to-face activities that focused on social inclusion and reducing feelings of isolation from the community. As a result:
- 77% of carers reported that they felt the program was helpful and practical
- 88% of carers reported that they will continue to meet with others in their care tribes, after the program ends
Client story
Eveleen (not her real name) came along this time, I can tell she loves the socialisation and enjoys the good company and relaxing atmosphere. [Two other carers] are two lovely ladies, we get along well. It’s exciting to find out that we actually share many common interests and consensus. Thank you for arranging such great connection event for us, and I hope I can bring Eveleen along with me for more of our tribe events and make some new friends. When they’re with me, I don’t have to worry about them home alone when I am away for the tribe event, in case medical emergency happens and I am not around,” said a carer from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.
d) Wound Innovations’ Education Events
CHN commissioned Wound Innovations to deliver 3 x face-to-face education events attended by 125 Nurses and GPs across the three 8-hour sessions. The face-to-face sessions were focused on the fundamentals of wound management, with many attendees expressing that they feel more confident in managing wounds and have an improved wound knowledge. Wound Innovations delivered 81 face-to-face and telehealth specialist wound consultations, this included bedside coaching to local clinical staff members.
Testimonial
Wound Innovations face-to-face educations sessions, “Fundamentals of Wound Management”, were well attended by Nurses and GPs, with 140 participants across the three 8-hour sessions. The sessions were well received by the participants, with a very high level of satisfaction and positive feedback, including that the sessions were relevant to the participants clinical practice and delivered effectively. Importantly, the education was also shown to improve wound knowledge, with a written quiz showing that staff demonstrated an average wound knowledge score of 73% before the education session, compared to an improved average score of 91% following the session. Testimonials were very positive with statements indicating the education was well received and will provide ongoing to benefits to clinicians in the CHN and their patients. Comments included:
- “Start to end I liked the whole education. Management of wound and phases of healing the wound. Everyone should have this education to have more knowledge about wounds.”
- “Good overall wound training with plenty of information that we will actually use.”
- “I would recommend this as it gave a comprehensive overview on how to treat wounds commonly seen in primary practice.”
- “All Registered Nurses and Enrolled Nurses should do this course.”
- “Very informative and applicable.”
e) Fisher Family Practice’s HAPPIER Program
CHN commissioned Fisher Family Practice to deliver the HAPPIER Program, which aimed to improve participants’ function and physical ability through positive interventions and targeted exercise rehabilitation. Fisher Family Practice had 687 service encounters over the last year, including:
- personal training
- physiotherapy
- body composition
- reviews with Practice Nurses.
Client Story
A participant disclosed that they had never participated in any exercise regime or attended a Physiotherapist before, due to being extremely self-conscious about their physical limitations and body image. The participant was anxious about joining the program, but with some encouragement from the team became an active member. They were excited to be engaging in health interventions. It was the first time they had attempted to embark on a positive change to their weight and mobility, despite significant encouragement from their long-term GP over many years.
f) Interchange Health Co-operative’s Healthy Ageing Exercise Program
Led by a Nurse Co-ordinator, the Healthy Ageing Exercise Program involved a multidisciplinary team aiming to prevent chronic conditions and health issues to reduce hospitalisation. The program involved:
- Exercise Physiologist – exercise programs
- Occupational Therapist – home reviews
- Pharmacist – medication reviews
- Nurse – healthy ageing assessment
- Dietitian – dietary review and health checks, including group sessions
- Social Worker – group and individual sessions.
Interchange Health Co-operative had a total of 60 participants involved in the program over the last year, with a total of 354 service occasions with each component of the program. Participants have reported that they have increased strength, endurance, balance and function after completing the program.
