Healthy lifestyles program for prefrail older people - a millennial perspective

Introduction: <br/>The “program” is a 12-week intensive active lifestyle program developed by university allied health professionals including occupational therapy, exercise science, physiotherapy and nutrition and dietetics disciplines. The program is designed to deliver bi-weekly, client-centred health education and exercise classes to community members identified by their general practitioner as at risk of frailty and/or early admission to aged care facilities. <br/><br/>Community challenge: <br/>The focus of the program is to target the pre-frailty population and provide a strong evidence-based program to build sustainable behavioural and physiological changes to improve physical function, reduce falls and increase safe engagement in daily occupations. <br/><br/>Approach: <br/>The program includes weekly themes inclusive of cognition, general health, functional independence, social support, nutrition, mood, continence, home safety and functional performance. These sessions compliment the evidence informed exercise program specifically designed for the older population. Learning objectives: Under the supervision of appropriately registered health professionals, students assess, develop, and deliver evidenced based approaches to achieve lifestyle changes. As a new program providing clinical practice hours for occupational therapy students there have been many leanings and opportunities identified. <br/><br/>Practice implications: <br/>Students can make a remarkable contribution to lifestyle programs for older people. While an interprofessional approach is not always an easy road, having consumers at the centre of care provides mutual benefits. These include upskilling the OTs of the future in primary care approaches, developing core OT competencies and providing a valuable service to the underserved community of pre fail older people Key words: Older adults, Education/Fieldwork