Senior staff experiences of implementing a reablement model in community care

Sarah J. Prior; Hazel Maxwell; Marguerite Bramble; Annette Marlow; Douglass Doherty; Steven Campbell

doi:10.1071/PY23214

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Senior staff experiences of implementing a reablement model in community care

Sarah J. Prior ^A ^* , Hazel Maxwell ^B ^C , Marguerite Bramble ^D ^E , Annette Marlow ^E , Douglass Doherty ^F Steven Campbell ^E

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A University of Tasmania – Tasmanian School of Medicine, Rural Clinical School, Burnie, Tas 7320, Australia.

^B University of Tasmania – School of Health Sciences, Rozelle Campus, Sydney, NSW 2015, Australia.

^C School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia.

^D Charles Sturt University – School of Nursing, Midwifery, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia.

^E University of Tasmania – School of Nursing, Newnham Campus, Newnham, Tas 7250, Australia.

^F Family Based Care Tasmania, Burnie, Tas 7320, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: sarah.prior@utas.edu.au

Australian Journal of Primary Health 31, PY23214 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY23214

Submitted: 9 November 2023 Accepted: 27 January 2025 Published: 14 February 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of La Trobe University. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Background

In 2018, a community care organisation in Northwest Tasmania collaborated with University of Tasmania researchers to develop and implement a strategy for incorporating a reablement-based model of care into their service delivery model as a core organisational approach to care. This study aimed to investigate the long-term outcomes from the initial reablement education to improve our understanding of the needs of staff and clients of community care organisations.

Methods

The research explored the impact of reablement on client outcomes and how reablement can be translated across organisations. A qualitative research method was utilised to explore experiences of senior staff 2 years after the first reablement education sessions. Two focus groups were held 4 weeks apart. Nine senior staff participated in focus group one and seven in focus group two.

Results

Three key themes emerged; reablement needs an appropriate governance and organisational strategy; reablement is a beneficial practice; and strong organisational culture supports reablement. Achieving long-term outcomes involves integrating reablement into working practices and this remains challenging due to organisational constraints.

Conclusions

This study contributes to the growing body of evidence that shifting underlying practices in community care from ‘doing for’ to ‘doing with’ involves a major change of behaviour and practice for individuals and organisations.

Keywords: community care, implementation, model of care, organisational change, patient-centred care, service delivery, staff experience.

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