Bay to benefit from $5million fund focused on ageing well
Helping people age well, retaining a more
active lifestyle in the process, is the focus of a
new $5 million fund. And a handy smartphone
app is just one of the ways in which the money
will be used to help do that.
The funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation
and Employment (MBIE) will support the AWESSoM
(Ageing Well through Eating, Sleeping, Socialising and
Mobility) trial, scheduled to begin in September and
which the Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB)
will participate in. AWESSoM is headed by Professor
Ngaire Kerse from the University of Auckland but a
researcher will be based in the Bay
of Plenty throughout. Part of the
trial will involve adapting a smart-
phone LifeCurve app which supports
healthy ageing.
“In Scotland the LifeCurve is used
to support healthy ageing and to
identify where Allied Health profes-
sionals should be intervening,” says
BOPDHB Allied Health Director Dr
Sarah Mitchell, who worked on a
similar programme in Scotland.
Sarah says the work looked at the
sub-optimal life curve (where people
endured a long period of decline)
and the optimal curve (where people
retained more function for longer as
they aged).
“We’re living longer but we don’t want that to trans-
late as just more years of decline. We want our work
as Allied Health professionals to be improving people’s
lives and that means targeting the work earlier on the
curve where it can have an impact and keep people
more active and mobile.
“What we found in Scotland was that 43% of our work
was taking place towards the end of the curve. So basi-
cally a massive amount of functional decline was going
on without people seeing Allied Health professionals.”
Sarah says the proposed app will take people through
a series of questions based on everyday tasks to assess
their functionality. This information will then be used to
compare the user with others of comparable age.
“Normal ageing starts with the process of not being able to cut
your toenails and progresses through a number of stages all the
way through to not being able to eat independently,” says Sarah.
“You can tell a person they are either mildly frail, moderately frail, or
severely frail, but that doesn’t mean anything to them and is a very
deficit based approach. But if you can tell them
where they are based on what things they are
able, or unable, to do, that means so much
more and focuses on their assets rather than
their deficits.
“This is where you are but if you do this, this
and this, you can get better. It’s simple but
effective. It might also then suggest activities
the person might like to pursue to improve or
maintain their function.
“It might for example, suggest a local aqua
aerobics class with one of our partner agen-
cies,” added Sarah. “Because it’s fun and easy
for people, using real-life examples of everyday
tasks, it really resonates. People love it.
“At the end of the day what we’re trying to do
is to help people live healthier happier lives as
they age. The work in Scotland was based on
where it was best to concentrate our efforts to
do that. The idea was to shift our Allied Health
expertise and in some cases resources much
closer to the top of the curve so that people
could benefit more.”
A smartphone app is one of the ways funding will be used for the new Ageing
Well through Eating, Sleeping, Socialising and Mobility Programme being trialled
in the Bay of Plenty.
Stylish activewear on show as hospital staff
support ‘Get Up, Get Dressed, Get Moving’
Tauranga and Whakatāne
hospital staff swapped their
regular work clothes for their
best active gear recently, in
support of the global Get Up, Get
Dressed, Get Moving campaign.
Linked to the social movement #end-
PJparalysis, the campaign highlights
the importance, particularly for older
patients, of keeping active while in
hospital.
There is plenty of evidence that
immobility in hospital leads to
deconditioning, loss of functional ability
and cognitive impairment. For the
older person even a few days bed rest
Tauranga Hospital staff swap their regular work attire for activewear supporting ‘Get Up ,Get Dressed, Get Moving’.
can cause a rapid decline in muscle
strength and lead to an increased stay in hospital and
complications.
BOPDHB Nurse Practitioner Rosie Winters says,
• 24 hours of bed-rest reduces your muscle power by 2.5% and not
"Traditionally people think if they're in hospital they must
just in your arms and legs but in your heart and lungs.
stay in bed. We need to shift that mindset and, as soon as
• Older adults living at home typically take 900 steps per day but in
possible encourage our patients to get up and move.
hospital most patients only take 250 steps per day
"When patients come in and change into gowns they some-
• Longer bed rest leads to a longer stay in hospital and greater risk of
times tend to retract into a passive role.
infection.
“Getting up and moving has been shown to reduce the risk
of falls, improve strength and stamina and enable patients to
• For people 80plus, one week in bed ages their muscles by 10 years.
recover sooner.”
Get Well and Get Home sooner
As part of the campaign, Allied Health teams in both
• Get up - spend less time on the bed and eat meals whilst sitting in a
hospitals organised activities on the wards encouraging
chair
patients to be active. Patient meals were also delivered with
• Get dressed - get changed into comfortable day clothes
additional tray liners with the message "Get better sooner by
• Get moving - walk to the bathroom and regularly around the ward
following the 3Gs – Get up, get dressed, get moving."
Did you know?
Top tips to healthy ageing
Physical activity can make your muscles
stronger and help older adults maintain
function and stay healthy as they age.
• S
pend more time being physically
active and less time sitting down.
• A
im for at least 30 minutes of
aerobic physical activity such as
brisk walking, dancing, kapa haka
or playing with grandchildren, five
days each week. Aerobic activity
makes your breathing and heart rate
increase.
• A
im for 3 sessions of flexibility and
balance activities, and 2 sessions of
resistance activities each week.
fl exibility (for easy movement) such
as:
• modified tai chi
• stretching
• gardening
• yoga
balance (to prevent falls) such as:
• bowls
• standing on one leg
r esistance (for muscle and bone
strength) such as:
• carrying shopping
• s tanding up and sitting down
repeatedly
• I f you haven’t done any physical
activity for a while or you have
a medical condition, speak to a
healthcare practitioner before
starting or increasing physical
activity.