The aged care sector is continuously changing to meet the needs of older Australians. People are living longer, have more complex care needs and want to live in their homes for as long as possible. Over the past decade, emerging research has demonstrated the benefits of focussing on client independence. Traditional models of service delivery that focus on what a client can’t do rather than what they can, tend to lead to an over-reliance on services by clients, which has been linked with accelerated functional decline.
Wellness and reablement approaches are based on the idea that that, even with frailty, chronical illness or disability, most people want and are able to improve their physical, social, and emotional wellbeing, to live autonomously and as independently as possible.
The Australian Government has developed a range of online resources and a Community of Practice to help Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) service providers to embed wellness and reablement approaches into their organisational practices and service delivery.
Find out more and access the Community of Practice and resources on the Australian Department of Health’s website.
