Funding Body

Silver Chain Foundation ($100,000 originally, $200,000 for further 2 yrs)
RM Gibson Research Fund ($5,000)

Project Description

Social Rehabilitation is a service model that was developed and piloted by Age Concern UK as one of a range of services to help older people sustain their independence and retain a sense of control over their lives.  The aim of Age Concern UK‘s Social Rehabilitation program was “to complement health and social care services for older people by providing a structured input to help support the achievement of desired social roles and activities, and thereby improve the psychological as well as the social well being of service users”.  The program offered a time-limited program of support, based on a comprehensive assessment of an individual’s needs and aspirations, in which trained volunteers assist the older person to achieve their specific goals. 

This project is a trial of the Age Concern UK Social Rehabilitation service model.  The trial includes a rigorous evaluation of client outcomes and program processes.  The outcomes achieved in terms of levels of loneliness, depression and goal achievement for individual participants are examined at program completion and at a subsequent three month follow up.

The trial commenced in January 2006 and progress was reviewed after twelve months.  This review showed that although the program was achieving positive client outcomes in terms of reduced depression and loneliness and increased well being, the way that the service had been delivered needed to be refined.  A proposal for an extension of the trial for a further two years in order to allow a refined model to be implemented and tested was therefore developed and presented to Silver Chain.  This proposal was accepted and funding for a further two year trial of the refined model, renamed Social Enablement, was approved. 

Project Update

Work on the second stage of the trial commenced in late August 2007 with the appointment of a new Volunteer Team Leader.  Following the development of a new project plan, the final three months of 2007 were spent refining the program processes and documentation in line with the recommendations of the twelve month review.
 
The major changes to the program were in terms of increasing the role of the volunteers to include goal setting with the client allowing the Team Leader to reduce their direct client contact and instead increase the time spent directly supporting, or facilitating peer support among, the volunteers. These changes necessitated redevelopment of the volunteer training program and materials as well as the development of a volunteer manual and a booklet in which the client, with support from the volunteer, records their goals and the weekly strategies to achieving these goals.

The research design for the second stage of the trial has also been changed as a proposal for conducting it as a small randomised controlled trial was accepted by the Australian Association of Gerontology’s RM Gibson Research Fund for Emerging Researchers with a monetary award of $5000. The new design means that clients who agree to participate in the trial are randomly allocated to commence the program immediately or to wait three months.  Both groups are assessed on the standard outcome measures at referral and three and six months later.

The volunteer recruitment strategy has proved very successful so far. The first group of ten volunteers attended training in January, to be ready for when the Social Enablement service went live on 1 February 2008.  A further group of eight were trained in early March.  Client recruitment has been somewhat slower than expected.  Three pamphlet mail-outs have been sent to eligible clients since late January and thirty seven clients have referred themselves, or have been referred, to the program.  The table below explains the outcomes for clients who have referred for this service as of June 2008.

Not Eligible	5
Not Suitable	5
Active clients	14 7 from Group 1 7 from Group 2
Waitlisted clients	3
Withdrawn clients	4
Clients awaiting assessment	3
Completed clients	3
Total	37

For further information please contact
Dr Gill Lewin
Research Manager
Email  GLewin@silverchain.org.au