Endless ‘possibilities’ for sector with new handbook
A new aged care resource which offers a practical approach for those working with older people in the community has been launched.
In times of significant change and reform in the aged care sector, the Imagining Possibilities handbook is informed both by the experiences of people in their 70s, 80s and 90s, and the people who work with them and contributes to the new narrative about what it means to grow older in South Australia.
The Imagining Possibilities handbook was launched last week at a special event held at Morphettville Junction.
Jane Mussared, COTA chief executive, speaking at the launch commented: “The wave of demographic change older people represent should be as disruptive as digital technology, as groundbreaking as women’s suffrage and as revolutionary as the civil rights movement. But we need to ride it and capture its awesome energy.”
According to Ms Mussared, this is “our challenge with reframing ageing”.
“We will be the leaders of championing choice and preference, we will join older people to explore the length and breadth of possibility, we will let imaginations roam and stretch and we will catch that wave,” she says.
“This book is about the process of visualising potential, of picturing a way of living and then chasing down the ways to make it happen.”
In South Australia, aged care providers employ 32,000 people, with the number expected to treble in the next 35 years.
“It is important for workers to have the tools that help them to be creative and responsive; to imagine new possibilities,” she says.
Imagining Possibilities was created by The Better Practice Project, written by Rhonda Held and edited by Jane Sherwin.
Copies of the book will be available from this month. Direct enquiries to Vicki Smith or phone (08) 8338 8008.
Find out more about the Imagining Possibilities handbook.
