We all want to be taken care of when it’s time to settle down in aged care, but many places don’t have the luxuries city centres have, so it takes a huge effort to secure these things in regional communities.
Cooinda Court in Junee has put in that extra work to secure a dedicated vehicle that can now operate as a permanent transport.
The new addition marks a significant turning point as they can now offer more outings, community events, and social activities. This is a dream come true for many residents.
This took a large and lengthy effort from staff to secure the ride, an effort which has paid off with CEO, Belinda Colgan, saying it was a dream come true.
“It has been a long-held wish of the residents, the staff and the board of directors to have our own vehicle so that the residents are able to get out and about into the community and to enjoy activities outside of the facility,” she said.
“We got an 8-seater bus so that we can do smaller groups, but it provides more of a regular system for attending outings. The purpose of it is purely for the enhancement of getting out into the community, going to Wagga, and going for drives. Things you can’t do without dedicated vehicles.
“This has been over 35 years in the making. The facility has never had its own motor transport, so the fact that we’ve been able to get something straight upfront that is new and purpose built and comfortable for the residents is very wonderful.
“The board of directors works tirelessly, along with me, to constantly look for ways to improve the current services that we offer.
We are all very proud to have achieved something we know has come up time and time again on the residents’ wish list. The residents are extremely grateful for the fact that the board of directors, an unpaid board of volunteers, have worked tirelessly to govern the facility, to be able to keep it open, and continually improve what we’re able to provide.
“It speaks volumes that the community of Junee is so supportive of the services that the town has to offer. The whole of the Junee Shire works towards looking and being able to keep facilities open to support their current users, but also residents, across many areas of need and desire. The aged care system in Junee is quite unique. This facility works alongside the Junee MPS. The community centre also works not just across aged care, it provides quite a lot of services. The Junee community has a unique connectivity amongst its services and service providers, which is definitely something that’s different from a lot of communities, that’s for sure.
“This achievement in aged care with the introduction of the new act, and the changes being finalised on the 1st of November, has definitely seen a lot of impacts on small facilities, especially facilities that don’t deliver nursing home care or work delivering nursing home care. This particular facility had to restructure its whole complete directorship and the portfolios that they held. The whole operational management team had to be redesigned, mainly to be able to keep up with the governance and reporting requirements.
Those areas have seen a substantial increase in the demand on facilities within the current structure, the structure that was there before all of the changes came into effect.
“We note the amount of history that’s attached to the facility, all of the people over the years that have contributed to making the facility what it is today, setting that foundation. It was a group of volunteers that got Cooinda Court started; that model has not changed right up to its directorship.
“The committees and the types of structure in which their organisation has run have changed quite a few times, but the core values of the people that donate their time have not changed.”
Jack Murray
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
We offer weekly print editions at $3 a copy and we also offer digital subscriptions across 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120.
We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
Contact us today to find out how we can promote your business or organisation across our huge network by emailing ads@thetimes.net.au or by calling 0413 763 216.
If you have a news tip, lead or scoop for us please make contact as we love celebrating our communities. You can contribute articles via our South West Slopes Times website.
