The set up of Australia’s health system means it is easy to think in silos, said Dr Justin Keogh, an exercise scientist and behavioural researcher.
Exercise physiologists talk exercise, dietitians talk diet, and so on. But health and wellbeing encompass many things and have different aspects to different people, said Dr Keogh, an associate dean of research at Bond University, who is advocating for a holistic approach to ageing.
“Holistic means looking at something from multiple perspectives,” Dr Keogh said.
“To be healthy, you need to look at not just the absence of disease, but other aspects of physical, mental, social, and maybe spiritual health, for different people.”
Dr Keogh is delivering the opening keynote address on a holistic approach to healthy ageing at this month’s Positive Ageing Summit.
The two-day conference on 28-29 May aims to empower people working in the aged care sector to achieve better outcomes for older people through evidence-based strategies that focus on allied health, reablement and wellness.
Dr Keogh said there were challenges to the aged care sector making the shift to a holistic approach including due to funding, set program outcomes and the willingness of providers.
For example, often when an older person is struggling with their activities, such as cooking or cleaning, a service provider arranges for someone to come in and do that thing for them.
But this “is a short-term fix,” he said. “It doesn’t help them maintain independence.”.
While they may still need some level of that assistance initially, Dr Keogh said often underlying factors contributing to dependence can be also be addressed.
“In many cases, an exercise program that targets some of those physical limitations, be it strength or balance, are often some of those primary issues that can over an eight-to-12-week program result in significant improvements in function, so they can start to redo some of those daily activities.”
While things such as stroke require much longer-term rehabilitation, general physical decline can be rehabilitated quite rapidly with evidence-based exercise prescriptions in this period, he said.
“We can get really pronounced increases in strength in that time,” which starts the process to reablement, said Dr Keogh.
Resistance and balance training can be adapted to a person’s condition or level of physical ability meaning even sedentary people can benefit, he said.
“If we progress that over time, it has profound benefits to your physical function, which then hopefully will translate to doing those activities that bring that meaning to your life,” Dr Keogh said.
Overcoming barriers to allied health in aged care
Elsewhere on day 1 of Positive Ageing Summit, a panel of leaders will discuss how to overcome barriers to allied health in aged care including workforce silos, perception gaps, and funding issues.
The panellists, Dr Robert Mullins and Jason Skennerton, who are national podiatry manager and executive general manager of customer growth at Plena Healthcare respectively, and Food Solutions national dietetic manager Yvonne Feeley, will also highlight what’s actually working to overcome these barriers.
“Providers across both the residential aged care and home care space need to flip the script when thinking about allied health by adopting a wellness and reablement-first approach,” said Mr Skennerton.
“This approach means focusing on using health and wellness experts to focus on prevention of health deterioration and increased independence, rather than engaging as a reaction to an incident.”
Positive Ageing Summit is an initiative of Australian Ageing Agenda and Community Care Review. Find out more on the Positive Ageing Summit 2025 website or book your individual and group-discounted tickets here.