A Rutherglen Aged Care resident, who has been recognised as a part of the state's Recognising Senior Victorians initiative, has described the Federal Government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout as a "shemozzle".
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Leonie Featonby, a resident at Indigo North Health Incorporated, said she was dissatisfied with the way the national vaccination program had unfolded so far.
"I think the Federal Government have sort of tried to handball it to the states, when they initially said they would handle it," she said.
"I was very disappointed at the way that it's gone."
She said residents at the home had only received vaccinations on Tuesday, but the staff were still waiting.
"Now, initially, the aged care workers were supposed to get it first and then the residents of the aged care homes get it next, so it's all been a bit of a shemozzle," she said.
"Frustrated is a good word.
"What can we do? We've just got to wait."
Ms Featonby was recently recognised, along with 50 others, as a selected notable Victorian as part of a Victorian Government initiative to celebrate aged care residents.
"I was very flattered, actually, to tell my story," she said.
"We closed down on March 23 last year and it was total lock down, no one in, no one out."
Ms Featonby said the lock down was hard, but she felt sorry for elderly people who were living alone outside of aged care facilities.
"They couldn't see anyone face to face," she said.
"At least we had staff in and out of our rooms and you had somebody to actually talk to."
She said for her personally, the restrictions hadn't been too bad, as she was able to attend her sisters 80th birthday before the first lock down took effect.
"I was able to celebrate with all the rest of the family, which was just wonderful," she said.
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She said she wanted to use the recognition to "highlight the seniors in the world" and remind people to view the elderly as people.
"You walk into a nursing home and you're looking at a lot of people with dementia," she said.
"It's really sad, because you think of them as an old person with dementia - instead of that you should be thinking this person had a really good life and they did lots of things.
"I bet there's people in there that have done more than I have.
"Everybody has an interesting story to tell."
Ms Featonby had a diverse career, which, among other things, saw her work at a mining company in the NT, teach herself book keeping, work for the consortium that rebuilt the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne after its 1970 collapse and be one of the first people to walk across the completed bridge.
In 1988, she and her husband bought The Poachers Paradise pub in Rutherglen and afterwards bought into a local taxi business.
She said being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis was a bit of a shock, but also a relief.
"I had what they'd call 'footdrop', so I'd trip over,' she said.
"I used to say to people, all those years I thought it was the red wine.
"When I was finally diagnosed, I thought 'well, now I know what's wrong and it's not too bad'.
"(With) MS you can still live pretty happily, yes, so I did.
"I was living with my husband then, and then he had the temerity to get cancer, the poor darling, so he died last November, three years (ago).
"After he died, I came in here, so I've been here for that three and a half years and it's a great little nursing home."
Ms Featonby uses a mobility scooter and is working with her physiotherapist to be able to walk again.
She said she enjoyed volunteering in community life, particularly aRTS Rutherglen.
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