Aged Care and Rehabilitation Unit
Our Aged Care and Rehabilitation Unit (ACRU) provides acute medical care to older adults in the Rockingham-Kwinana catchment area living with functional decline (a loss of self-care abilities). This may be due to complex medical conditions such as:
- stroke
- fractures
- after surgery
- infections needing medical support.
The unit seeks to prevent further functional decline in our patients and maximise their functional abilities through rehabilitation, enabling them to return home early with support.
We collaborate closely with the psychogeriatric and the palliative care teams to provide specialised care for a subset of our patients.
The multidisciplinary ACRU team includes:
- a team of doctors led by geriatric medicine specialists
- nurses with expertise in aged care
- occupational therapists
- dietitians
- physiotherapists
- pharmacists
- social workers
- speech pathologists.
Our 30-bed, purpose-built unit includes dedicated therapy programs designed to achieve maximum independence for patients undergoing rehabilitation.
As part of their rehabilitation, our patients are encouraged to:
- dress in day clothes
- complete daily living tasks as independently as possible, with assistance from the staff as required
- participate in their individualised rehabilitation program regularly.
Stroke Service
A comprehensive stroke service offers acute stroke treatment for certain patients and post-stroke rehabilitation.
We provide supported early discharge for our patients through our integrated ICOPE (Integrated Care for Older People Every time) services which includes the following programs:
Our Aged Care Transitions and Liaison Nurse (ACTaLN) supports older people at risk of hospital readmission to manage their care across hospital, community and primary health settings. Read more about ACTaLN.
The Rehabilitation in the Home Discharge to Assess (RITH D2A) program supports allied health professionals to visit patients to support transitioning back into their homes after their discharge from hospital.
Acute Ambulatory Care Unit (AACU) to monitor their medical conditions and follow up on urgent outpatient investigations.
Patients requiring longer rehabilitation may be transferred to Murray District Hospital in Pinjarra, a step-down hospital that enables longer stay patients to continue their rehabilitation. This hospital also provides care to patients awaiting placement and palliative care services.
A variety of integrated outpatient services covering a range of geriatric medicine specialities based in Community Rehabilitation (CR) service provide follow up for the discharged patients.
The outpatient clinics include:
- General geriatrics
- Memory clinic
- Parkinson’s disease clinic
- Falls clinic.
The following allied health outpatient clinics are also available:
- Outpatient physiotherapy
- Falls specialist physiotherapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech therapy
- Dietetics
- Social work.