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Person-centred reablement approach

What is a person-centred reablement approach?

Not all older adults requiring care have the same needs, values, goals, or priorities. Person-centred care focusses on the needs and preferences of the individual, rather than their disease or diagnosis. [1, 2] Aged care services that provide care that is person-centred consider the personal preferences and activities meaningful to and enjoyed by a person before they required aged care support. [3]  Assessing each older person as an individual is therefore important for supporting them to regain their independence and do the things they want to do and achieve in life. When delivering care to older people you may want to consider the following:  

  • Regular individual assessments to determine the functional and cognitive abilities of older people to assist with ongoing care planning and meaningful goal setting. Regular assessment can also be useful to measure progress and assist older people to achieve their goals.  

  • Individual care plans- Individual assessment provides the opportunity to develop care plans that consider what is important to the person, what gives their life meaning, and how their care can be delivered to improve quality of life. These care plans can support the workforce to deliver meaningful care.  

  • Meaningful goal setting- Collaborative goal setting between care workers, older people, and their families can be useful to inform care and motivate older people to actively engage in functional activities. [4]

To support you to deliver a person-centred care approach in your aged care service the following resources might be useful:

Want to know more?

If you require more information on the reablement approach and how to implement it in aged care:

  1. Visit our evidence themes on Rehabilitation, reablement, and restorative care
  2. Browse our full set of resources on the topic.
  3. Look for research evidence within the PubMed database by using one of the PubMed searches provided here. PubMed contains brief information (‘citations’) on millions of research studies. It can therefore be challenging to search. Our librarian has made finding highly relevant information on this topic as simple as a click of a button. Click on All to see everything in the database on the topic or choose Free to view only articles immediately available to you free of charge in full text.

Connect to PubMed evidence

If you wish to find out more about reablement in aged care, try using one of the PubMed searches below. These links (all or free) take you to the relevant research literature in the large international PubMed database.

  • Person-centred reablement
About searches
  1. Coulter A, Oldham J. Person-centred care: What is it and how do we get there? Future Hosp J. 2016;3(2):114-116.  
  2. Gordon S, Burns R, Champion S, Niutta L, Bennett P. Compassion and person-centred care: Survey development for aged care workers. Australas J Ageing. 2022;41(2):e140-e150. 
  3. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Person-centred care [Internet]. Sydney: The Commission; 2023 [cited 2023 Aug 2]. Available from: https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/partnering-consumers/person-centred-care 
  4. Poulos CJ, Poulos RG. A function-focused approach in primary care for older people with functional decline: Making the most of reablement and restorative care. Aust J Gen Pract. 2019;48(7):434-439.
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