Southern Cross Care proud to celebrate

Southern Cross Care’s devotion to healthy ageing was recognised as we were awarded the Active Ageing Week’s Celebrate Age 2017 award.

The award, which was officially received at Adelaide Parliament House, was awarded for Southern Cross Care’s Early Intervention and Healthy Ageing systems and strategies.

Southern Cross Care Director of Operations Jo Boylan said it was a proud day for her, and the entire organisation.

“A lot of work has gone into this initiative, and this is the perfect reward for our large number of employees involved in every aspect,” she said.

“We are committed to a person centred and healthy ageing approach which contributes to the quality of life of each person.”

“We’ve seen some great results through this initiative and I’m sure we won’t rest on our laurels and continue to improve.”

The strategies were created in late 2014 and throughout 2015 and documented into 2 governing policies, 9 procedures and 5 interactive e-learning mede-guides.

These tools and other education sessions, which focused on areas such as healthy ageing, appreciative inquiry and meaningful goal setting, have guided and supported employees to work in new ways to reverse, stop or delay the loss of each individual’s capacity.

Each of our 17 residential care centres have implemented standardised multicomponent strategies to treat the underlying causes of declining capacity, to help each individual maintain their strength and balance through exercise and to maintain social engagement through promoting individualised activity participation.

And in a fantastic sign of teamwork, each site has a dedicated Early Intervention Working Party that meets fortnightly to discuss referrals, engage in critical evaluation of the reasons contributing to decline and to develop recovery pathways which aim to promote physical and social engagement.

Achieving this embedded recovery oriented approach has required a shift that has extended far beyond the medical model and has enabled Southern Cross Care as an organisation to re-evaluate all aspects of service delivery to optimise trajectories of intrinsic capacity, uniformly and genuinely support autonomy and dignity and normalise healthy ageing.

An evaluation of the Early Intervention program in March 2017 showed that 510 residents have been involved in the Early Intervention program so far.

In addition, 62% of the 113 residents who have been discharged from the Early Intervention program maintained the mobility level they had before the program and 19% had improved mobility.