Group programs

We offer groups for aged care residents (i.e. anyone living in Australian residential aged care facilities), carers (i.e. family or friends of aged care residents) and older adults in general.

 As a resident, you may also like to join reminiscence or men’s groups. If you are an older adult aged 60 or over, and are living with a life-limiting illness, you might like to reflect on your experiences with others who are in a similar life stage.

As a family member, relative or friend of an aged care resident, you might like support dealing with your own questions, worries, anxieties or stress about the resident or how best to support the resident. 

Please note that our capacity depends on a number of considerations. For example, we may not be able to run group programs without a sufficient number of participants or without facilitators in your facility. 

There is no cost for you to use this service.

Group programs that are run onsite at residential aged care facilities require approval of the facility manager. If you are a facility manager or designee, and would like such group programs in your facility, please contact us.

You can refer yourself or others (e.g. an older family member, relative, friend or aged care resident in your facility) to our group programs. When referring someone else, they need to consent for us to contact them.

To request our services for yourself or another person, or for queries, please complete our contact form. You do not need a referral from a GP or health care professional. If you are unsure if this is the right service for you or others, please contact us to discuss how we can support you. 

When we receive a referral, we will contact you to confirm that we have received it and may ask you questions to determine how we can best assist you or the person you have referred.

If you have referred someone else, we will first contact you to learn more about the person’s circumstances and ensure they have consented to being contacted. We will then contact the person whom you have referred to us.

Our facilitators are fully registered psychologists, experts in autobiographical life-writing, as well as provisionally registered psychologists, social work interns and postgraduate counselling students, who are under supervision of experienced practitioners.

We are aware that many of the issues that will be discussed in group programs are highly private. We maintain strict levels of confidentiality in accordance with our professional accreditation standards. Our facilitators may need to share your information with their clinical supervisors.

Consistent with our duty-of-care obligations, if you are in danger of harming yourself or others, we must take steps to prevent harm, and hence we may need to disclose your identity to keep you or others safe.

If you are living in a residential aged care facility, we may also need to discuss your circumstances with facility staff if we believe that it would be in your best interest. However, we will always ask for your consent and discuss with you whom we could approach before we share your information with staff.