Aged care has an inevitability about it whatever your situation.
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If it’s not making plans for what happens when you can longer function independently in your home, it is embarking on that same decision-making process for loved ones.
The industry can sometimes get a bad rap, such as the recent scandal involving a national player charging exorbitant exit fees.
But as is often the case, the actions of a relative few can cloud the positive approach taken by many in the aged care sector.
Communities right across the Border region have bared witness to many such examples.
And often these have been projects driven by these communities, keen to provide an affordable but high-quality living option for those needed varying degrees of care as they negotiate their twilight years. The Mercy Place aged care home in central Albury has been one such example of the good that can be achieved.
It is not that many years since a redevelopment took place at the Poole Street site in the interests of creating a facility capable of meeting a rising demand in the best of circumstances.
It is clear though with this week’s news that there will now by a $7.5 million refurbishment of the site that no one is resting on their laurels.
Mercy Health has decided to take an innovative approach to catering to future demand with this project as it will involve the introduction of small community households on the site.
Specifically, that involves the refurbishment of the two-storey building. What is heartening though is it won’t be more of the same.
Rather the project will be done in such a way that it will allow for a progressive upgrade of the building into seven small community households.
As Mercy Health development manager Roman Lemke has explained, it will result in up to eight residents living together in each house.
The pride that we all take in having a place of our own is reflected in the fact that each resident will have their own room and ensuite as well as plenty of other facilities to make them feel at home, including a kitchen, lounge and dining area.
Mercy Health should be congratulated in having the vision of creating a village-like atmosphere at Mercy Place that will be to everyone’s benefit.