What is ActiveStrongerBetter?
ActiveStrongerBetter is a low to moderate intensity exercise program promoting independence, confidence, health and well being for older adults. Programs are run by accredited fitness leaders, trained to conduct safe, effective and enjoyable classes for people of most fitness and ability levels.
Program Outcomes
Decrease risk of falls
Improve quality of life
Build social connections
Maintain independence
The program is a safe and fun way for seniors to keep fit, build strength, flexibility and confidence, and improve physical and mental health in older adults. Classes are offered face-to-face at community venues in the Newcastle/Hunter region of NSW – to find a class near you visit class locations.
Program Aims
The ActiveStrongerBetter mission is to promote and increase access and availability to safe and fun exercise for older adults. The program aims to improve both the physical and mental health of older adults, including cognitive well being and social contentedness, through the development of communities centered around the weekly exercise class.
History – Why ASB is needed?
An exercise program incorporating aerobic, strength and balance components is the most effective strategy to manage many, if not most, of the chronic disease problems experienced by older people and to prevent a loss of mobility and independence. Exercise programs maximise the opportunity for older people to remain independent in their own homes and avoid residential aged care. Despite this, current access to safe exercise classes targeted at the older population is limited, particularly in regional communities.
ActiveStrongerBetter Manager Deborah Moore, together with Dr John Ward, Geriatrician and 2024 NSW Senior of the Year, identified a gap in service provision and saw an opportunity to reinvigorate the type of exercise programs that were previously available for older people under the Heart Foundation’s ‘Heartmoves’ (1998-2016) and NSW Health’s ‘Active over Fifties’ (1998-2013), before funding for these programs was withdrawn. The Heartmoves model was a highly successful and targeted Australia-wide program, delivering health outcomes for older adults, with significant reach and effectiveness in rural and regional communities.
ActiveStrongerBetter was designed and developed based on these two evidence-based precedents, supported by international research on safe exercise programs as essential strategies for prevention and management of many major health problems facing older people including mobility, frailty and falls.
The ASB Pilot
The ActiveStrongerBetter program began as a pilot project in 2022 for the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie regions of NSW supported by NSW Health. The program was extended to the Hunter Valley and Port Stephens with funding from the Primary Health Network (PHN) in 2023.
The ASB Pilot aimed to re-establish a range of safe and effective exercise options for older people, filling the gap that existed for programs that cater for older people who are well, but require more support to exercise, and also for those who have specific health concerns that can be managed in conjunction with a GP/Specialist or secondary prevention team.
The pilot included exercise sessions suitable for:
- frail older people accessing Day Centres and Residential Aged Care Facilities, through chair-based and general gentle exercise.
- older people living in the community who are generally well, through aerobic, strength and balance exercises to optimise health, mobility, and independence.
- people with particular health problems, through specific exercise programs to enhance the health management in conjunction with their health professional program.
The ASB pilot program was hugely successful with over 40 fitness leaders trained to deliver the program and over 55 classes on offer weekly throughout Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens and the Hunter.
Meet the ASB Team
The ActiveStrongerBetter team includes expertise in physical activity, the fitness industry and ageing. Operationally, the ASB Program team is comprised of:
Deborah Moore, Program Manager
Natasha Whyte, Program Manager
Amy Huff, Program Officer
Anthony Robinson, Program Support
Joanna Rodgers, Program Support
Rosemary Moore, Program Support
Julie McCaughan, Program Support
Management
The program has shared management by Hunter Ageing Alliance and NovaCare Community Services –
NovaCare is a Professional HomeCare Services in the Hunter. The innovative, award winning support from the Hunter’s premier Home Care specialist is here to surprise, delight and help you live your way. We have community centres in Merewether, Swansea and Morisset.
Hunter Ageing Alliance is a citizen-formed advocacy group asking Government, business and organisational leaders to join them to better focus on the needs of older people. Age-friendly communities mean that planning takes the needs of older people into account, recognising that older people have the same desire to remain physically, intellectually, and socially active as younger people. This requires environmental adaptation, appropriate housing at all levels of affordability, easy access to information about services and facilities for older people, protection from elder abuse, health care services appropriate to the needs of older people and support for socially isolated people to ensure their physical and psychological well-being.
Consortium
ActiveStrongerBetter is also overseen by a Consortium of regional experts including doctors, medical specialists and allied health professionals; aged care organisations; researchers; multi-cultural and First Nations groups; and the fitness industry. The consortium provides broad academic, research and intellectual input to the program at a regional and strategic level, as well as providing program implementation, promotion and referrals.
If you are a health professional or have skills in the area of exercise and public health program delivery, and would like to join the consortium express your interest by emailing us at asb@novacare.org.au.
