Hi, my name is Helen. I’m sitting here in the living room of my new apartment on a cold Melbourne, almost Winter’s day. In this video, I talk about what my daily support looks like and how it all works.
I was in aged care for seven and a half years,
What I’ve found since I’ve moved is that really, the level of care I get is so much better. People have time. They’re just there for you when they're here for you. You’re the only thing they're -
Focusing on. In aged care, If you're anywhere near comfortable in there, that’s okay. They're onto the next person. But what I’ve found is that support workers will actually say, “Are you really comfortable, or would you like us to do that again?”
Most of the time I have support coming in that’s been scheduled. And I know that that will mean that I’ll get up in the morning and then I’ll have lunch if I want it, and I’ll have dinner at night and go to bed when I want to. And if anything happens outside those hours and I have an emergency, like a jacket that I can’t take off and I’m feeling really hot, some of those sort of emergencies, then I could call someone and they will come, and they will help me out. And that’s really important, that’s really important.
Choosing when you go to bed is just - I guess the right of an adult. you're not going to bed at seven o’clock because that’s when it fits in with a staffing roster.
Now, I just think, “Oh, I haven’t got enough time to read. I should’ve gone to bed earlier,” that sort of thing. But yeah, it just feels normal now. I feel like I’m an adult again,
I call people with my mobile phone most of the time. But there’s also an iPad that is set up for this place.
So it means that I can call the concierge service for an emergency support, or it also helps me with lots of assistive technology that means that I can do things without needing to call someone.
Now I have the choice about when people come in and when they don’t. And if any of my support workers come, they ring me or ring the intercom, like everyone else does. And the concierge service only comes when I ring them or use the iPad to call them. They don’t just come in to check you. But on the other hand, if you wanted that, they will do that as part of the package.
I have staff that I like that if I make a - say I prefer not to have that staff member, they don’t come. And will spend the time with me to make sure that my needs are met properly. It’s just such a change. I can’t believe how much more healthy I am since I’ve been here. And it's really down to the food and the care, I think. I sleep better. I eat better. I have better physical care. I go to bed when I want to go to bed. So I just couldn’t recommend it more. It’s so much better.