What are therapy services and how do they contribute to improved quality of life for senior Australians?

Plena Healthcare’s Plena Care Pathway provides an innovative service model supporting consumers through their entire residential aged care journey, and is designed to address the new AN-ACC funding model.

What is unique about the Plena Care Pathway, is the Therapy Service component, known as the Restorative Phase, which aims to optimise and maintain function and mobility, and includes the management of pain. This is achieved through consumer-focused goal setting, individualised treatment planning and tailored therapy.

Overarching the Therapy Services is an ongoing review and referral system, capturing clinical change early and ensuring intervention is commenced when needed most. The enhanced multidisciplinary approach ensures adequate risk assessment and analysis occurs to understand the causative nature of events and incidents. The benefit for residential aged care providers is in improved ability for residents to perform activities of daily living and move about the facility safely and reduced risk of falls, thereby reducing the care burden for provider staff.

What is function and mobility?

Let’s look a little bit deeper at why function and mobility are so important. Mobility is the ability to move from one position or place to another – for example, move around in bed, move between a bed and chair, walk from one place to another or move around using a wheelchair. Function refers to our body’s ability to work or operate in a certain way, or to our ability to perform certain tasks. This might include activities like attending to personal care, completing domestic tasks, socialising and accessing the community. Therefore it is not only important to keep our bodies strong and moving, but this movement needs to be done in a functional way, so that we can continue to participate in daily activities.

Both function and mobility are important components of quality of life, something we believe every human has a right to. We believe that by maximising a person’s independence with function and mobility we can improve their sense of control over their lives, give them a sense of purpose and help manage symptoms of anxiety and depression.

How does consumer-focused goal setting contribute to improved outcomes?

Consumer-focused goal setting is a process that puts the consumer at the centre of decision making. By inviting the consumer to be actively involved in setting their therapy goals based on what is important to them, and what they want to achieve, we see improved outcomes through an improved sense of control while assisting with motivation

It also means that therapists are able to address individual preferences and diversity, and tailor therapy to each individual. Plena therapists recognise and respect each resident’s needs and rights to make decisions around their healthcare journey.

How is treatment planning individualised and tailored to residents’ condition?

Based on the residents’ goals and the individualised assessment findings, the therapist can break down what is needed in restorative therapy to address the findings and achieve those goals. The tailored intervention is then planned and implemented over a short term period, such as 12 weeks. Throughout the program, therapy is monitored and modified as required, based on the individual needs at the time of therapy. Our therapists are responsive to clients’ condition each day – should a resident be experiencing increased pain, therapy for the day might be refocused to address pain management, rather than the usual program which is focussed on strength and balance exercises or functional therapy such as grooming practice using assistance aids.

When restorative therapy is aligned to the needs or goals the resident has actively identified, motivation to participate in the program and work towards achieving those goals is improved.

The therapy component of the Plena Care Pathway is designed to be integrated seamlessly with our user-pay model, allowing providers to offer an extensive allied health service to residents wishing to top up their allied health service suite.

If you’d like to learn more about our Plena Care Pathway and how consumer-focused and individualised therapy improves outcomes for residents, get in touch with us today.