Progress report on Senior's accommodation and support project
1 Dec 11
Following a survey in the Voice last year, an informal group has been considering the feasibility of establishing some facility for seniors’ accommodation in Kangaroo Valley. The group has contacted several operators in the field and, based on the outcome of those contacts, has had preliminary discussions with, and inspected facilities operated by, three organisations.
At a meeting on 21 November the group established a steering committee to pursue those investigations further.
Its members are Tony Barnett (Chair), Simon Harrington (Secretary), John Ballinger, Jennefer Hutton, Chris Pryor, Lee Sharam and John Skidmore.
The committee decided to expand its aims, to include assisting seniors to remain in their own homes.
Hence the name “Seniors Accommodation and Support”.
A suggested alternative, “Over the Hill but Still in the Valley” was very tempting, but thought to be a little too long for the name of a committee.
Of the three organisations on our “short list”, the committee agreed to discard one, the Abbeyfield Group, because under its model facilities are managed by volunteer committees from the local community, whose members typically have experience in aged care and it was thought that we would have difficulty finding in Kangaroo Valley enough volunteers for that purpose for an indefinite period.
We will be pursuing further discussions, at a higher level than in our initial contacts, with the other two organisations – The Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution and Uniting Care – and will report on the outcome in a future issue of the Voice.
In pursuit of our aim to assist seniors to remain in their own homes as long as possible, the committee will be collecting information on all available services and disseminating that information to our community through the Voice and, in due course, on the KV community website.
If anyone is aware of home services currently available in the valley, please provide details to Jennefer Hutton on 4465 1100.
If anyone has any other questions, comments or suggestions, please contact me on 4465 1800 or any other member of the committee.
Tony Barnett