A Protocol for Enhancing Allied Health Care for Older People in Residential Care: The EAHOP Intervention
Abstract
:1. Background
1.1. Research Questions
- Is an integrated transdisciplinary allied health service model effective in preventing falls, addressing frailty, and promoting engagement in people transitioning to or living in residential aged care?
- Can an integrated transdisciplinary allied health service model improve outcomes focused on falls, frailty, and engagement, compared to baseline measures, in people transitioning to or living in residential aged care?
- What are the care experiences of residents, carers, staff, and other key stakeholders when an integrated transdisciplinary allied health service model is implemented in residential aged care?
1.2. Objectives
- Implement and evaluate a new integrated and transdisciplinary model of allied health intervention in relation to the impact on falls, frailty, engagement, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness.
- Evaluate the process (or implementation) of the new allied health service model by asking key stakeholders (residents, families, care staff, and nursing staff) about their experiences of participating in the model.
- Produce evidence-informed guidelines for residential aged care providers in Australia to implement an integrated transdisciplinary allied health service.
2. Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Study Setting
2.3. Participants
2.4. Conceptual and Operational Framework
2.4.1. Model of Care
- What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult’s goals and care preferences.
- Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across care settings.
- Medication: If medication is necessary, it should not interfere with What Matters to the older person.
- Mobility: Ensure that older people move safely every day.
2.4.2. Case Conferencing
2.4.3. Clinical Liaison Manager
2.4.4. Allied Health Professionals and General Practitioner
2.4.5. Allied Health Assistants
2.5. Intervention
Action Falls Program
2.6. SampleSsize
2.7. Data Collection and Monitoring
2.8. Outcome Measures
2.9. Program Evaluation
- To ascertain if the transdisciplinary model has met the project aim of improving quality of care.
- To identify barriers and enablers to implementation of the program as planned, with the aim of developing an implementation guideline.
- To provide a detailed description of program resourcing.
Implementation Outcome | Measurement Details |
---|---|
Feasibility |
|
Access and Uptake |
|
Acceptability |
|
2.10. Economic Evaluation
2.11. Fidelity Assessment
3. Data Analysis
3.1. Quantitative Analysis
3.2. Qualitative Analysis
4. Ethics Review
5. Discussion
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Description | |
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Occupational Therapy | Participants will identify goals relating to activities of everyday living with specific reference to self-care, leisure activities, and productivity that are meaningful to them that they would like to be engaged with and/or become more satisfied with. The occupational therapist will develop goal-directed and individually tailored occupational therapy interventions to improve performance and satisfaction with the identified occupational performance challenges. These will be discussed with Health and Lifestyle staff to support ongoing sustainable implementation with the individual. |
Physiotherapy | Participants will engage in exercise based upon the SUNBEAM program [15] involving 2 h per week of individually tailored strength and balance exercises prescribed by the physiotherapist for 25 weeks (total 50 h) and then a maintenance program for the duration of the intervention. In some instances, participants may not be suitable for the SUNBEAM program. In these cases, they will be offered an individualised virtual cycling experience [16] once a week for the intervention’s duration. |
Dietetics and Nutrition | Participants diagnosed with weight loss or at risk of malnutrition will be provided with an individualised, high-protein, high-energy diet by fortifying menu items such as porridge, soups, mashed potato, and desserts, and/or oral nutrition supplements. In addition, the dietitian will provide modified menus to Food Service staff and training to Food Service staff on how to fortify menu items as per modified menus. |
Speech Pathology | Participants will receive individualised interventions focused on communication partner training over a period of up to 36 weeks. The speech pathology intervention may include communication repair strategies, an education component, role play, practice, and recording of communication interactions to identify and address communication challenges. |
Optometry | Participants will receive an onsite, mobile assessment by an optometrist evaluating visual function (including refraction, confrontation fields, visual acuity, ocular structure (macula and optic nerve lenticular assessment, and intra-ocular pressure) to address visual impairments that may contribute to fall risk. Actions arising from the assessment of visual function may include new spectacle prescriptions or referral of participants for management of ocular disease. |
Pharmacy | Participants will receive an onsite medication review by a pharmacist who will provide recommendations regarding the resident’s medication to the participant’s GP, nursing staff, and family members. After the initial medication review, participants will receive a 2-week follow-up visit to understand how medication decisions are implemented in the medication treatment and charts. Each participant will have an initial case conference and then a follow-up visit from the pharmacist every 3 months (online or in person). |
Increase Mean Response After Intervention | Power |
---|---|
2.5 | 0.99 |
2 | 0.94 |
1.75 | 0.84 |
1 | 0.63 |
Primary Outcome Measures | |
---|---|
Falls: Number of falls in past 12 months Number of falls during intervention period Number of falls after intervention | |
Quality of Life Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC) [19] | |
Frailty: The Frail in Nursing Homes (Frail-NH) Scale [20] and the and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9) [22] | |
Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) [21] | |
Secondary outcome measures | Allied health discipline |
Short Falls Efficacy Scale—International (Short FES-I) [23] | Physiotherapy |
Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) [24] Mid-arm muscle circumference [25,26] Quantitative analysis of dietary intake will be calculated before and after fortification | Nutrition and Dietetics |
Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) [27] | Occupational Therapy |
Number of medications (that contributed to increased risk of falls) ceased/changed at case conferences Number of case conferences and pharmacist follow-ups Rate of GP agreement on pharmacist recommendations | Pharmacy |
Number of new or updated spectacles recommended Number of referrals arising from vision assessment The National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire—25 (VFQ-25 + 10) [28] | Optometry |
Holden Communication Scale [29] Number of communication breakdowns occurring The number of resolutions (strategies used to repair the communication breakdowns) | Speech Pathology |
Revised Index for Social Engagement (RISE) [30] | All |
Brief Pain Inventory (short form) [31] or PAINAD [32] | All |
ACTION Falls: number of ACTION falls checklists completed [17] | All |
Hospital leave days | All |
Program satisfaction survey | All |
Qualitative interviews | All |
Program evaluation | All |
Economic analysis | All |
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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Isbel, S.; D’Cunha, N.M.; Wiseman, L.; Dawda, P.; Kosari, S.; Pearce, C.; Fearon, A.; Sabeti, F.; Hewitt, J.; Kellett, J.; et al. A Protocol for Enhancing Allied Health Care for Older People in Residential Care: The EAHOP Intervention. Healthcare 2025, 13, 341. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030341
Isbel S, D’Cunha NM, Wiseman L, Dawda P, Kosari S, Pearce C, Fearon A, Sabeti F, Hewitt J, Kellett J, et al. A Protocol for Enhancing Allied Health Care for Older People in Residential Care: The EAHOP Intervention. Healthcare. 2025; 13(3):341. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030341
Chicago/Turabian StyleIsbel, Stephen, Nathan M. D’Cunha, Lara Wiseman, Paresh Dawda, Sam Kosari, Claire Pearce, Angela Fearon, Faran Sabeti, Jennifer Hewitt, Jane Kellett, and et al. 2025. "A Protocol for Enhancing Allied Health Care for Older People in Residential Care: The EAHOP Intervention" Healthcare 13, no. 3: 341. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030341
APA StyleIsbel, S., D’Cunha, N. M., Wiseman, L., Dawda, P., Kosari, S., Pearce, C., Fearon, A., Sabeti, F., Hewitt, J., Kellett, J., Naunton, M., Southwood, H., Logan, P., Subramanian, R., Chadborn, N. H., Davey, R., Bail, K., Goss, J. R., Ambikairajah, A., ... Gibson, D. (2025). A Protocol for Enhancing Allied Health Care for Older People in Residential Care: The EAHOP Intervention. Healthcare, 13(3), 341. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13030341