Abstracts & Presentation Summaries - Department of Health

Good Practice & Innovative Service Models Concurrent Sessions
Session 2 — Innovation
Yvonne Honey, Coordinator, REACH Social Support and Respite Services, Sandybeach
Neighbourhood House, with Brenda Vogt, Lorraine Baker & Virginia Mort
REACH Social Support Services
REACH is a vital, innovative Social Support program that operates from a local
community centre. We provide a range of interest-based activity groups for frail
older people, people with dementia and their carers. Our emphasis has always been
to provide meaningful, empowering and stimulating activities in a friendly, caring
and pleasant environment. Our groups are in high demand with clients, carers and
referring agencies. They are interesting, sociable and enjoyable. We would like to
share the success of our program by presenting the philosophy upon which our
programs are based and the principles and practices which make our groups unique.
Our philosophy is that everyone deserves to have access to interesting activities and
a sense of purpose in their lives as well as opportunities to interact with other people.
Elderly people who are isolated need extra support to achieve this. So we provide a
choice of interesting, quality activities and the opportunity to meet with others.
And then we make sure that the support and transport is there to enable people to
become involved.
We aim is to address the social, emotional and intellectual needs of older people.
Our programs are designed to fulfil this aim. All are based around specific interests
or activities and have a social component. Our approach is to consider these needs
first and find an activity or group that suits the interests and personality of the
individual. We try to address any limitations in terms of health, memory loss or
disability after we have ascertained what group or activity someone would most
benefit from. We provide ongoing emotional and physical support to make sure that
people can get the most from the activity or group of their choice.
The specific programs are:
Armchair Travel
These weekly travel talks provide a pleasant social occasion combined with
intellectual stimulation and take people on a virtual journey out of Melbourne into a
world they once visited (or would have liked to visit!). They can be very positive for
people with memory loss – visual reminders of places once visited can bring back
happy memories for them.
Life Stories
This is an intimate, social reminiscing and writing group that provides a wonderful
forum for sharing, creativity and validation.
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