Dedicated daughter Debbie Cordiner is one of hundreds of family members loving their parents from afar this month as aged care facilities manage the safety of their residents during lockdown.
There are around 300 older people living in the district’s six aged care facilities: Te Wiremu House Lifecare and Village, Dunblane Lifecare and Village, Beetham Lifestyle Village, Kiri Te Kanawa Retirement Village, Ngati Porou Hauora Charitable Trust Resthome, and Leighton House.
Hauora Tairawhiti nurse leader, primary and community, Heather Roberston says this district’s aged care facility staff were “collectively clever and ahead of the game” in preparation for what was to come with COVID-19.
“They had good processes in place and as well as having national organisations to learn from they have openly shared their ideas with each other.”
Even before the lockdown visitors were restricted to the facilities, newly arrived residents were isolated, shared meals were replaced with individual dining, and a low threshold for COVID-19 testing was put in place.
Ms Robertson says there are three levels of aged care offered in the district: rest home care, continuing care, and dementia care. Some short term respite care is also offered.
Staff working in the facilities include registered and enrolled nurses and health assistants as well as a strong group of administration staff.
“The nurses and their managers are all passionate about working with the elderly – the nurses are hungry for knowledge and willing to share their resources.
Debbie Cordiner’s 79-year-old mum Val White has been in a town house at Kiri te Kanawa for nearly five years. Used to regular family visitors the widowed mother of three is now restricted to shouted catch-ups across a safe threshold.
“We still go and wave across the divide,” says Mrs Cordiner. “Mum is doing well but it takes work from us as family, and the staff, to keep her up beat. “We have finally got her using an i-pad and she loves seeing her grandchildren and what they’re up to.”
Ms Cordiner says the staff at Kiri Te Kanawa have come up with innovative ways to keep the minds and bodies of residents active.
“They have been brilliant. We get lots of updates about what is happening and I know they are doing all they can to help the residents feel less isolated.”
Kiri te Kanawa manager Jenny Wood says they have shifted exercise sessions outside so residents can join in while maintaining social distancing. Areas for outside catch-ups have been created so residents can join a conversation with a coffee. And security has been beefed up outside the facility to ensure visitors are closely monitored.
“Happy hour in a bag on Thursday is something else we do,” says Mrs Wood. Normally happy hour is held in the Village Centre.
“But now our residents get a little bottle of something (people have their favourite – a beer or a wine or something non-alcoholic) and a bag of nuts or chippies and an activity and we drop it off to them.”
“We have also organised shopping for residents twice a week, we deliver staples like bread, milk and biscuits once a week, and we have installed Zoom to enable residents to keep in touch with their loved ones.”
As for Mrs White, Debbie Cordiner says her mum has found plenty to do with her time. As well as the phone calls, workout class, and coffee with the girls, she recently took her tiny granny car out for a slow spin along the internal road within Kiri te Kanawa.
“She told me she needed to turn the battery over,” laughs Mrs Cordiner. “You’d think she was talking about her V8, not her Toyota Corolla!”