Continued growth in the ageing population is expected to generate business for healthcare providers. Strategic Professor Susan Gordon, South Australian Chair of Restorative Care at Flinders University, explains the benefits of differentiating your services to meet older people’s evolving needs.
A rehabilitation and restorative health program run by one of South Australia’s largest aged care providers is bridging the gap between hospital and home and providing solutions to help older Australians continue to live independently for longer.
Opened in 2014, ACH Group’s ViTA facility in the Adelaide suburb of Daw Park has delivered services to over 1500 Australians in their seventies, eighties and nineties, who typically spend between five and 12 weeks there.
Vita is a Latin term meaning ‘life’ and the program’s name was chosen to reflect ACH Group’s raison d’etre since its inception in 1952: to support older people to live good lives.
The over-arching goal of ViTA, in line with the values of its not-for-profit parent organisation ACH, is to delay entry into higher levels of care. Individuals who remain in their own homes typically have higher levels of social and emotional wellbeing and their doing so represents a saving to healthcare and social services budgets.