Keep Able Reablement Podcasts
Keep Able is your go to authority on Wellness and Reablement. Our various podcasts cover discussions on real world issues and examples from people in the at home aged care support sector, specifically for CHSP providers.
Keep Able Reablement Podcasts
Supporting clients through connection P2 - Jasmin Higlett & Lisa Bird
St John Ambulance discussing the importance of transport services to connect clients to their community and how this is reablement. Key messages they convey to clients for a positive pathway.
Discover more reablement resources at keepable.com.au
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Reablement Podcast, where Keep Able are talking to a range of people who have experience using Reablement and we will explore how it all comes together and why it works. I'm Alison Bella from Keepable. In this episode, I'm continuing the conversation with Jasmine Higglett and Lisa Byrd from St. John, Queensland on using reablement through their transport and social services. Last time we ended talking about the importance of asking the right questions, listening to what the person has to say, and observing things like their body language. I'd love to talk more about that.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And I think then there's a second part of that that we haven't talked about here that I say that they're not a form and they're not a piece of paper, but the fact is we do have to record this information because support is not a one-on-one business. If it was, it would all be our family members and friends doing the support. But support being part of the care industry, your note-taking has to be on point, right? The information that you communicate, how you communicate it, and the space that the next person has to read that information has to form a part of that. I talk about the colour and the tapestry that makes up a person. Those forms are important, but you have to find a way to communicate that tapestry. And that's where we come full circle to where we started and talking about the importance of those goals and those that information on care plans and goals being direct, being encompassing of who and what that person is, because it's not always going to be you that supports that person. You have to take the space to be curious, to listen, to observe, and to record. And then on the flip side, to read. You have to go through it. Organizations have to allow time and space for the staff who are the frontline workers who really get to know these clients to both record and read the information that we capture.
SPEAKER_02:And that's important for all service types as well. Sort of we we hear a lot of stories about clients who say, Oh, it seems to be a different person every time that comes. But their experience can be quite different if there feels still some continuity because they know the person that they're coming to see. That's it.
SPEAKER_01:And the person can be as simple as it doesn't have to be D. Sometimes that person, it's okay for that person to just be a St. John staff member, right? As long as that St. John staff member knows that when Mary goes out, she gets halfway down the shops and she likes to stop at that coffee shop because they make the best hot chocolate in the center. Right? Knowing that information before you set foot in the person's home or space can set you up for success to ensure that you know what they're trying to achieve and more importantly, how they like to achieve it.
SPEAKER_02:Excellent. What do you love about working for St. John Queensland and what you get to do every day? I'll throw it to you first, Jasmine.
SPEAKER_00:I so I just I think of when I first started working for St. John, I loved what we were about, about at the core helping people. And then once I got into hearing all the stories about transport and social support and what that does for people, it just made me feel really, really good. I mean, from the outside, you just think, oh, yep, transport, that's just picking someone up and dropping someone off. But it's not. It's it's so much, it's so much more to that. And it's it's hearing the people talk about what that adds to their life, whether it's yeah, transport, the social support, the phone calls that we make to people, and just how it empowers them to live a better life. I once had a client, we'd taken them to uh transport to Government House, and then she went on a tour. And I was I had gone on that trip as well, and I was sitting in the back with her, and she turned around and goes, Did you know, without St. John, I would never ever have the confidence or the ability to go out and see things like this. And it just got me thinking, I was like, we take transport for granted. Like, how easy is it for us as able-bodied people to just jump in our car and go to the shops or bring up a friend and say, Hey, you want to go get dinner tonight? Yeah, we you don't give it a second thought until something is like transport you can no longer do. And it just made me really appreciate transport much, much more than it is, and recognize that it is a barrier for a lot of people. And by providing community transport services and social support, it really does help people and it really does make a difference in their life. So, yes, I I enjoy being part of an organization that is really values helping people. And everyone who works at St. John is there for the same reason. We are all so passionate and there are there's such beautiful people that work for the organization.
SPEAKER_02:And it's not a transactional service transport that I think for many, many years people have been thinking, oh, you need to get from A to B, so we'll do your transport referral and that's it. And as I said before, probably not deep diving into those motivations and then creating a fabulous goal, even if it is a short-term option, for them to get to their rehab appointments. So if you get rehabilitated from your recent illness or injury, how's life going to change for you? So it gives it meaning and purpose. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Life is a journey and transport is just the first step.
SPEAKER_02:I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I've been working for St. John for, as I said, a little over five years now. And the thing I really like about it is just that everything that we do helps someone. There is no downside to what we do. There's no days that I come to work and think, oh, I don't want to be here. Because there's so many opportunities for our wider team to help people across the spectrum. From anyone who's in the seniors space all the way down to people who are having trouble accessing the community because of their disability. I think that I love going out into groups and talking about what we do because everyone's always so pleased to see us. They're always excited when we walk in the room. It's a good day when I walk into a room and the first response is, oh, thank goodness you're here. And I love that feeling. And I think my day has changed since I started with St. John. I started out supporting our drivers and fleet on the road to get them where they need to go. And now as a partnerships manager, I spend my day talking to other organizations who just love helping people. And our conversations are always well, how can we help them together? And I think that that really gives me a spark to get up every day because I feel like I know that I'm making a difference, as is every other person under the St. John banner. And I think that that always makes it easier to get moving. And part of our St. John way is see something, say something. And that's such a simple message, but it's so important to embed in service provider organizations where it doesn't have to be big, right? I remember having a conversation with a driver a couple of years ago now where he said, Oh, I just got an ick. I just, I just had a not great feeling. I was out with Mrs. Jones today, and I just realized this is the third time she's forgotten her keys. And I've just realized that it doesn't sit right, and I think we probably need to check it. And so that enabled us to have a conversation with Mrs. Jones and with her care providers at home to ensure that we checked in on her and we made sure that she was okay. And we then found out that she was experiencing some cognitive decline and she hadn't really been sure if she should talk to someone about it. And it prompted her to really reevaluate where she was sitting in her health and wellness journey. She had great conversations with her doctors, her family, her carers, and came back to the table and said to us, Hey, can you support me by checking if I've got my keys when we leave the house? And we said, Absolutely we can. And we've added a field for our drivers so that when they get to her house, they go, Hey, Mrs. Jones, we're here to go to the doctors today. Have you got your keys? And that way she, just with a simple tweak and a simple observation, is now much more confident and capable when heading out and about for the day.
SPEAKER_02:And it's about that prompt to her, isn't it? So that she can recognise, oh, there's something I need to do and can then do it for herself. So it's again that not coming in and going, where's your keys? I'll grab them for you. Love that approach.
SPEAKER_01:And it's it's as Jazz said, it's empowering her to do what she is able to do. She's perfectly capable of picking up her keys and putting them in her pocket or her bag, right? But as she declines in her age and her wellness journey, turns out at the moment she's not capable of always remembering to do it. So that's where we can step in and help her with just that portion to ensure she still has the ability to look after herself.
SPEAKER_02:Fabulous example. I love that. Is there anything particular on our Keep Able site that you find really valuable or that you have used in your work?
SPEAKER_00:My favorite one is actually the life curve.
SPEAKER_02:I hear that from a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00:She just talks about the life curve to no end. I talk about the the life curve to a lot of a lot of people out in the community. And I actually kind of use it in the way of advocate for yourself to get services in place. Don't leave it until it's too late, kind of thing. Um, so I encourage people to have a look at it. And um I say, Did you know the first thing, the first sign of decline on the life curve is not being able to cut your toenails? And they're like, huh? And I said, think of all of the things. I said, you've got to have motor skills to be able to use the nail clippers, flexibility to bend down to get your nails. And I said, so that's a sign. So if you can't cut your toenails, what kind of steps can you take to prevent that decline? Like show them the life curve graft. And I know I had one gentleman that I spoke to about and I saw him a month or so later at an expo, and he goes, I couldn't stop thinking about that life curve. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. And he goes, Now I've I've contacted my aged care and I've signed up for services, and I'm trying to actively do things to make sure that I don't go down this awful decline that I want to live life well and stay independent. And I was like, yes. That's what I want to hear. Practice in motion. Absolutely. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Some of the resources available as well. We love handing out to both our drivers and even through to the clients. Jazz mentioned before the cafe, going to the cafe handout, and really being able to talk to our teams about why that's so important for our clients and to the clients themselves. About think about it, you're already on a reablement journey for yourself. You just didn't have the word for it. But we're already doing these things in both our organizational practice and in the clients' everyday lives that they're already reabling themselves. They just didn't have the wording.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly. So we've got some changes coming up in the next couple of months around the change to the AgCare Act, quality standards, etc. And one of the big things, of course, is the statement of rights. How do you feel that fits with reablement?
SPEAKER_00:It definitely is. Well, it's all about reablement, really. The statement of rights is allowing people to be independent and do what they want to do. So reablement definitely fits into that because at the end of the day, you're wanting people to stay independent. So I think a really good way you have to show that your organization acts compatibly with the statement of rights. So a really good way to demonstrate that would be to show your reablement strategies. What are you doing for your clients to ensure that you're promoting reablement for them? On the internet, there are many gap analysis spreadsheets that you can download and they've got each of the statement of rights. You can put in for each of those key concepts, what are you doing to show that your or your organizational is compatible? And I would encourage people to think about okay, well, in terms of reablement, what are we doing? Um, and list that and just compare because there is a lot of similarities. A lot of crossover.
SPEAKER_01:So we have a really strong process in place. It's where all of our staff in any capacity have access to a universal tool where they can just flag something, right? They can say, hey, I got an ick on this, or hey, I observed this. And then we follow that through in our system to be pop-up alerts for our drivers saying, check that Mrs. Jones has her keys or check that John has his wheelie walker or something. And I just I think that's something as simple as that took us an hour to embed it in our processes that a lot of service organizations don't do. They don't have a pathway for how to communicate back.
SPEAKER_02:So can you tell me how you look at and then capture their journey through, I guess, my age care and the aged care sector?
SPEAKER_00:Uh so because we receive, we also receive state funding for community transport for people aged under 65. So we quite often have people that start with us within that, then once they turn 65, they have to go through my age care. When they come to us aged under 65, a lot of the time it could be that they don't use transport because of disability or they live in an area where there's no public transport or there's financial disadvantaged. And then as they're getting older, and then we can realise some mobility decline. So we're we're constantly looking out for any changes that are happening, particularly any decline. Then we can flag that. That might mean a change in strategy for how we provide our services with reminders. It could be a support plan review back to my age care, saying, hey, this person might need some more additional services. Obviously, with our funding, so that's Commonwealth Home Support Program, so that is low care. But then it might be that they then transition onto a home care package. And we do brokerage agreements with home care package providers, so they still are with us then as well. Um and it's that constant monitoring, picking up any red flags, and then reporting that back and then adapting our services.
SPEAKER_01:And I think it's important to focus on someone's life cycle through the organization. It's not just about when they do their intake and then tick and flick and then a tick and flick care review in 12 months' time. I think it's really important to understand that our lives always change. My life changes on a year-to-year basis, and so does that of our clients, no matter which area of the spectrum they're in on their journey. And I think it's important to remember that sometimes you actually have to stop and ask the questions again. It's not just about nothing's changed. Great. Because of course most people, when they're asked, has anything changed, will go, uh no. Whereas actually the answer might be that a hundred small things have changed, which add up to a pretty big change when you put it all together. And I think it's important to then genuinely, again, coming back to the point of using curiosity, asking the questions, but not just doing it once, doing it over and over again, as and when it's appropriate, to ensure that we capture them where they are now at all stages through their health and wellness journey.
SPEAKER_02:We use the word journey a lot, sort of in this sector, don't we? But it is so true. It's it's it's a really valid word to use. And as you said, sort of, you know, just asking the basic questions as they appear on the piece of paper in front of you. Clients will just say whatever pops into their head at the time. But once you ask those prompting questions, you get the real answer.
SPEAKER_00:At the end of the day, we need to think about safety as well. So while we do allow for dignity of risk and choice, but we have to think about safety.
SPEAKER_01:And it's safety for the client, it's safety for the driver, it's safety for the next client who gets in the car after them as well, right? There are so many layers involved in that. But again, I think what it comes back to is if you are blind to their wellness and reablement strategies that are hopefully in place, then you are blind to fixing any problems that arise.
SPEAKER_02:Excellent. Love those thoughts. So thank you both for being here today. This has been a fantastic conversation, and we hope that this discussion has been valuable for our listeners. We encourage everybody to visit our website at keepable.com.au to use all of our resources on wellness and reablement that we did touch on. So thank you both for being here. Thanks, Alison.
