Winner: Michelle Maslen
Activities Assistant, Hamilton Planned Activity Group, Victoria.
Program – Aqua Splash.
The Program started out as an idea that came from members of the Hamilton Planned Activity Group chatting about what they used to do and how they would love to do it again. Members often spoke about swimming in the river and across the lake and doing laps at the local pool. As a group we would have health speakers talking about the benefits of exercise and staff would openly talk about the Easy Moves for active ageing that could incorporate swimming and aerobic moves to assist in member’s fitness. We have an active falls prevention program that spoke about the benefits of exercise and water aerobics.
Michelle then completed a number of steps to get her program up and running these included:
* Obtaining approval from her manager
* Speaking with their physiotherapist to obtain current policies and forms that needed to be filled out including a swimming questionnaire
* Approaching Hamilton Indoor Aquatic Pool
* Completing a risk assessment of the facility
* Determining what equipment is required
* Completing evaluation sheets on each member monitoring health outcomes
* Gaining feedback from members and their GP’s
* Providing feedback to Management on the success of the Program