The Enliven Story

For several years, Presbyterian Support Northern ran its aged care services to a traditional model, with a number of rest homes located in the upper North Island and a large traditional homecare service in South Auckland.

However, a 2002 client satisfaction survey made it very clear that older New Zealanders wanted more community-based, client-driven options to assist them in staying in their own homes longer.

After much deliberation over the client and family feedback and growing international evidence of the benefits of positive ageing, Presbyterian Support Northern made the decision to move from a traditional to a restorative home-based model of service for older people.

In 2002 we began a two-year pilot of a restorative ageing-in-place programme in Hamilton, known as Community FIRST it aimed to provide older people with "high and complex needs" who may be considering rest home care the option of staying at home for longer and in control of their own destiny.

This successful pilot led to the expansion of the service and the late 2004 launch of Enliven Positive Ageing Services which Presbyterian Support Northern is now funded to provide to older people in Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga, Taupo and Whakatane.

In late 2006 Presbyterian Support East Coast adopted the Enliven brand for its restorative home and community-based services for older people in the Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay.

Presbyterian Support Otago is offering Enliven Positive Ageing Services to clients on the Taieri Plains as a two-year pilot programme, which commenced in February 2008. Other Otago community-based services for older people will move to an Enliven model in the future.

More information is available in the backgrounder.