Abstracts & Presentation Summaries - Department of Health

the 4 walls of the centre. The Saturday evening program operates once per month
and aims to better meet the social and recreational needs of younger people.
The program offers participants the opportunity to do more mainstreams weekend
recreational activities, activities which more able bodied people take for granted and
do every weekend. These activities might be going to the movies, going to listen to a
band or organising a catch-up with other ABI groups. As much as possible the group
members are given the opportunity of making suggestions and are actively involved
in planning the activities.
This program grew out of expressed client needs for a more normalised opportunity
to socialise and the enthusiasm of the staff to offer clients something that they
themselves see as being important, that is the chance to get out in the community and
experience the richness and diversity that makes up the whole world in which we
live.
The rationale behind offering an out of hours program was the recognition of the
need for flexible recreational options. Earlier on in its inception the clients in the
Saturday program identified outings and activities which required longer sessions.
The staff was able to accommodate these requests by combining two sessions and
have a bi-monthly all-day session. One such outing involved a visit to an historical
homestead in Yarra Glen, with lunch at a nearby cafe followed by a short drive to a
local winery where the group enjoyed Devonshire tea before returning home.
At a recent state forum contact was made with an ABI group in Gippsland.
The ECHC hosted a visit by this group on a Saturday where the two groups met for a
BBQ. The Doughnuts are soon looking forward to trekking to Drouin to return the
visit. The opportunity for meeting with other ABI groups provides a valuable chance
for participants to make new friends, to share experiences and stories and to feel
connected to other people in the community.
Objectives
The main objective of the Saturday Evening program is to increase the confidence
and self esteem of younger people who have an ABI. Depression and social isolation
are common experiences for young adults with an ABI and meaningful socialisation
experiences can be an important determinant of an individual’s sense of well-being.
Other objectives of the program are the provision of valuable weekend respite for
carers and the opportunity to increase community awareness of the issues
surrounding ABI.
Evaluation
It is recognised that socialisation programs are very difficult to evaluate.
The objectives of the program are often not specific to the needs of the program
participants and as such not easily defined or measured.
Although the program has not yet been formally evaluated, there is regular feedback
from the participants. Participating numbers is also a good indication of whether the
program is meeting participants’ needs.
A recent student to our service advised that an appropriate evaluation tool could be a
focus group involving all members of the group. This research tool could help us
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