Well for Life: A collection of stories, April 2006

Page content: Introduction | Download document

Introduction

Well for Life is an innovative health promoting program run by the Aged Care Branch, Victorian Department of Human Services (DHS). Seventy-six Well for Life projects have been funded across Victoria since 2003. These projects aim to improve the overall quality of life of older people by focussing on improved nutrition and increased physical activity. Currently Well for Life is targeted to residents of Public Sector Residential Aged Care (PSRAC) facilities and to older people who attend Home and Community Care Planned Activity Groups (PAGs).

Health promoting approaches are new to many aged care settings. Well for Life provides the means of challenging older systems, attitudes, and practices and enhances them with the aim of improving the health and well being of older people.

Well for Life also challenges some of the stereotypes that are held around what older people can do, and what improvements might be achieved in their health and enjoyment of daily living. This challenging of stereotypes is embedded in Well for Life principles and is expressed through simple changes in staff practice and involving Well for Life participants in physical activity and better nutrition. Initiatives in Well for Life seek to meet people's individual life-style preferences and needs for nutrition and physical activity.

The challenge for the Aged Care Branch is to remain in contact with those agencies that are implementing Well for Life in order to hear people's stories. This book starts to address that challenge. It is wholly based on stories from Well for Life projects and has been produced as a companion book to the Well for Life Evaluation: Highlights from the evaluation - phase one projects, November 2005.

To produce the book an invitation was extended to all funded projects to submit stories about Well for Life in their organisation - stories from staff and stories from participants. We received many submissions and have reproduced a selection.

This book is their story.

Download document

Well for Life: A collection of stories, April 2006 (2,044kb, pdf)

top of page