Great Southern seniors health and community rehabilitation services

The Great Southern Seniors Health and Community Rehabilitation team is dedicated to maintaining and improving the health independence and quality of life of older people, those with disabilities, their families and carers by ensuring high quality services are delivered in an equitable and timely manner.

Services provided by Seniors Health and Community Rehabilitation within WACHS Great Southern include the following:

Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT)

The Aged Care Assessment Team (also known as the ACAT) helps older people and their carers work out what kind of care will best meet their needs when they are no longer able to manage at home without assistance. ACATs provide information on suitable care options and can help arrange referral to appropriate residential or community care.

Commonwealth funded care requiring an ACAT approval includes:

• Residential Permanent - approvals that allow access to residential aged care
• Residential Respite - approvals that allow access to residential respite care
• Community - approvals to access a Home Care Package (HCP) or Transitional Care Package (TCP) or Short Term Restorative Care (STRC)

Community rehabilitation

The community rehabilitation service provides specialist rehabilitation to people over the age of 18 to help them live day to day life as actively and independently as possible. The team works with clients to maximise functional independence and quality of life.

The team offers rehabilitation therapies within the community setting throughout the Great Southern region.

Community Rehabilitation programs include:

• Group rehabilitation and education clinics
• Falls prevention clinics (Albany, Denmark, Mount Barker)
• Parkinson’s disease programs
• Neurological clinic – Stroke and other neurological conditions (Albany, Denmark, Mount Barker)
• Pulmonary rehabilitation
• Home visits / home exercise programs
• Individual appointments

Community Rehabilitation team members include:

• Allied Health Assistant
• Continence Nurse
• Diabetes Nurse
• Dietician
• Occupational Therapist
• Pharmacist
• Physiotherapist
• Social Worker
• Speech Pathologist

Older Patient Initiative (OPI)

The OPI team follows up older people after discharge from hospital if their risk screen has indicated a need for further care coordination to support their ongoing safety and independence in the community.