MOUNT Gambier aged care provider Boandik is pushing ahead with plans to build a $2m recreational centre, which will house the city’s first community hydrotherapy pool.
This was the message from Boandik chief executive officer Gillian McGinty, who addressed the Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast meeting yesterday.
“We have started planning for the community and wellbeing centre, which will be at the front of the building on the Lake Terrace site,” Ms McGinty said.
Boandik attracted a $150,000 grant for the hydrotherapy pool from the State Government through its Fund My Neighbourhood program.
The aged care chief also revealed the organisation was also in the planning stages to construct a dementia-specific residential building on the Lake Terrace site.
“This has resulted from an aged care study in England and Amsterdam, where there has been some fantastic work done with people living with dementia,” Ms McGinty said.
She said the model was based on the construction of smaller buildings housing possibly eight people.
“This will be the person’s home, the staff member working in there will provide the meals, laundry and care services,” Ms McGinty said.
“It will be like someone living in your home helping you out.”
Ms McGinty revealed the blueprint would also include the innovative idea of a shopping strip.
“It will not be full retail shops, but it will be set up like a shopping strip,” she said.
“So each day the people in the house will decide what they want for lunch and they will take their trolley down to the supermarket.
“They will take back the food and help prepare it – it is all about creating a normal home life atmosphere for people, which is contemporary practice.”
But she conceded this concept could be difficult to staff given it would need special people who could undertake all the roles.
“But we are certainly very excited about that,” Ms McGinty said.
“This will be the next progress at the Lake Terrace site, we still have quite a lot of land there.”
Ms McGinty said Boandik’s master plan was based on what the organisation needed to achieve its outcomes and priorities.
“Our priority is dementia and having dementia-specific accommodation,” she said.
Ms McGinty said improving the quality of their residents’ life was the key objective of the organisation, which faced growing demand due to the city’s ageing demographic.
“Our clients think they have a high quality of life, but we always think we can improve that,” she said.
Ms McGinty said university-validated data revealed residents rated their quality of life 86.7 out of 100, which was the highest out of the 12 organisations who participated in the pilot.
The organisation has lodged another grant application for the community recreational centre project.
