Gardening a labour of love for the Harmers

Flagstaff Hill retirees Terry and Helen Harmer know how important it is to enjoy a garden of your own.

The passionate green thumbs set aside a day a fortnight to help maintain the gardens of older South Australians as part of the ACH Group Home Assist Onkaparinga volunteer gardeners program.

They commenced with the program in April last year to help people who wanted to live at home but found physical tasks a challenge.

They make a point of taking direction from the customer on all their work, which includes trimming, raking, sweeping, pruning and weed control.

“We’re here to help, not to take over,” Terry says. “We ask how much they would like something cut back or how they would like something shaped, because everyone has their own ideas.”

Helen says as gardeners themselves, she and Terry are aware of how important it is to people to be able to maintain their outdoor areas.

“Being outside in a natural environment is so good for your overall wellbeing – both emotionally and physically,” she says. “We enjoy helping people, too. It’s a nice feeling.”

“We’re another point of social contact for people,” Helen says. “We always chat and provide a listening ear as we do our work.”

Helen and Terry are both retired but lead busy lives, squeezing in babysitting their four grandchildren, caring for Helen’s mother, travel and social commitments as well as keeping up with their own garden – a big block of mixed natives, raised vegetable beds, herbs and fruit trees.

“Our garden brings lots of birds – lorikeets and rosellas,” Helen says. “Terry has built the grandkids a cubby and they just love the garden.”

ACH Group Home Assist Onkaparinga is always looking for volunteers to assist residents in the local community. Volunteers are allocated a team of either two or three and carry out basic low level gardening assistance on a four-weekly or eight-weekly basis.

A variety of tools are provided and volunteers have access to regular training workshops, including fruit tree pruning and ACH Group mandatory training and safe practices.

The program runs on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9am to 2pm.

To find out more contact ACH Group on 1300 224 477 or visit www.ach.org.au

Free to Be Project wins national award

ACH Group’s innovation recognised with national awards

A commitment to delivering inclusive services for older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals and communities has earned ACH Group a national award.

The Free to Be Project was one of two ACH Group programs presented an Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency Better Practice at Mile End this month (Wednesday 10 February).

Under the three-year project, more than 730 of ACH Group’s 1700 staff and 500 volunteers complete LGBTI awareness training internally developed and facilitated by the group.

Free to Be Project Officer Robyn Burton says the organisation began its journey towards becoming intentionally LGBTI inclusive in 2012.

 

“While our organisation prides itself on promoting good lives for all older people, we recognised that older people from LGBTI communities have specific physiological and psychological needs that have come as a result of historical and ongoing discrimination,” she says.

An LGBTI Champions Program has been established and the Free To Be Project plans to apply for the Rainbow Tick at the end of this year, which endorses the fact that ACH Group meets the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex consumers.

A second award was presented to ACH Group for its early intervention and recovery programs for residential customers.

The award recognised ACH Group’s commitment to rehabilitation and early intervention by creating a partnership between residents and staff.

ACH Group Healthy Ageing Project Coordinator Samantha Manoel says interventions include tailored goals that are developed in consultation with the resident and incorporate individual choice and preferences.

“Interventions aim to promote physical activity and/or sensory stimulation while encouraging healthy life choices. Results from a review of residents on an early intervention pathway in the last 12 months indicate that 89 per cent are still walking.”

Presenting the awards, Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency SA branch representative Virginia Matthews praised ACH Group for its achievements.

She said from 247 applications, three of the 31 national winners were from South Australia and two of those were from ACH Group.

“We recognise that there are constraints and challenges in running an aged care organisation,” Ms Matthews said. “This award reflects your commitment to go beyond routine provision of care and achieve at a high level.

“This is acknowledgement that ACH Group is among the leaders in aged care in Australia.”

To qualify for a better practice award, programs had to demonstrate they were original, evidence-based, consumer-focused, linked to continuous improvement and subject to evaluation.

ACH Group has eight residential facilities that are home to over 680 older people.

Men’s shed motors to life at Perry Park

Men’s shed motors to life at Port Noarlunga

A new men’s shed at Port Noarlunga is breaking the mould of the traditional carpentry workshop by offering something for the mechanically-minded.

The Perry Park Bike Shed brings together residents from ACH Group residential living site Perry Park who share a love of motorbikes.

The group, aged in their 60s to 90s, is working together to bring a 1977 Suzuki TS185 back to its former glory.

Under the guidance of volunteers, fellow motorbike enthusiasts Peter Van Drunen and Rolf Klotz, they meet once a week in a shed fitted out as a mechanic’s workshop.

Perry Park Lifestyle Coordinator Lynette Rann says many of the group restored motorbikes in their younger days.

“Not all men are into woodwork – there are plenty who prefer to work with engines, and we could see that there was quite a bit of interest in a mechanical workshop,” she says. “These are the sorts of activities these blokes love doing. They enjoy coming out here and doing what they’ve always done.”

Group members Keith Hills, 69, and Lloyd Wenham, 91, are very happy to be getting their hands dirty, stripping back and rubbing down the tank and frame reading to be powder coated.

“I’ve worked as a mechanic and restored cars and motorbikes before, so it’s something I’ve always done,” Keith says.

To kick off the project, Lynette organised a tour to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood. During the trip, they stopped in at Bills Bits and Bikes across the road, where they found the bike in original condition.

“It had been sitting in water – it was a real rust-bucket,” she says. “We sat down and worked out what we would need for our workshop, then went to Supercheap Auto at Noarlunga to source all the tools and equipment.”

A storeroom at Perry Park was emptied out to make way for work benches, shelving and machinery.

ACH Group Innovation and Development Active Executive Manager Jani Baker says the project, supported by a grant from the ACH Group Foundation for Older Australians, fits in with ACH Group’s core values of supporting older people to contribute and lead healthy, happy lives.

“We are proud to support a project like this that brings people together to enjoy doing something they love,” she says.

Once the bike has been restored the group hopes to sell it to raise funds for its next project.

For further information or comment, please contact Anna Randell on (08) 8159 3632, 0417 856 361 or [email protected].

Board renewal to embrace aged care future

Leading not-for-profit aged care organisation for South Australia and Victoria, ACH Group, has announced the appointment of a new Chair.

Geoff Holdich, who has served as Treasurer for the past eight years, has accepted the position during a time of unprecedented opportunity in the aged care sector which includes greater competition, use of technology and innovation and significant policy change.

Mr Holdich is Chairman of BRM Holdich, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, a registered tax agent and auditor and has financial planning qualifications.

Mr Holdich was previously the Managing Partner of PKF where he was responsible for five offices in SA and NT and served on PKF’s National Council. He acts as Chairman of three other professional services firms, is active as a mentor to senior level executives and as a career management consultant.

He is also a member of the SAHT Audit and Finance Committee and up until 26 October 2015 was Treasurer and Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee of ACH Group.

“I’m very excited about assuming the position of Chair as we further embrace the consumer age in the sector,” Mr Holdich says. “Until recently, the power has been with the organisations who deliver services. As changing consumer expectation and government reforms come into play and consumers control their destinies, it’s up to us to continue to evolve into the type of business that older people choose to partner with to invent new possibilities. We commenced that evolution under outgoing Chair Brent Blanks, and I thank him for his leadership.”

ACH Group is currently growing and generating some very significant achievements, including:

  • The commissioning of the game-changing ViTA, ACH Group’s state-of-the-art centre that brings together health, aged care and education;
  • The first national trial of Consumer Directed Care;
  • The development of the CIMPACT tool to measure the impact of services on a person’s quality of life;
  • The establishment of The ACH Group Foundation; and
  • The implementation of new technology to serve the ACH Group community more effectively.