In Our Homes

R U OK? Day 2021

In the busy world we live in, R U OK Day? encourages us all to stop and check-in with one another to make sure that we are indeed, OK. At Hall & Prior the day is celebrated with morning and afternoon teas at our homes and offices in WA and NSW. This year’s theme was “Are They Really OK?” . . . ask them today! A small question that could make a very big difference. CEO Graeme Prior said of the day: “Help is always here if you need it and at Hall & Prior you will never walk alone.”

We love love

St Lukes Aged Care Home

AT HALL & PRIOR, we love celebrating our couples living together in care. This is Howard and Betty who live with us at St Luke’s Aged Care Home in Subiaco, WA celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary recently. Congratulations Howard and Betty on a lifetime of love.

Through the looking glass

Aubrey Downer Aged Care Home

Our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was a blast of Alice In Wonderland fun. We embraced the weird and wonderful at our tea parties as we proudly displayed our slightly crazy hats. Both lodges enjoyed a special ‘Wonderland’ tea party, with Alcheringa enjoying a spot of wacky fun in the morning and our Jeffress residents slipping into slight silliness in the afternoon. We put together some very funny games, but our favourite was definitely ‘Pin the Smile on the Cheshire Cat’. A tea party is simply not complete without some blends to tantalise our taste buds, so we enjoyed some different teas like peppermint, green tea and jasmine, all the while as we showed off our crazy hats. What a day down the rabbit hole!

Celebrating

OUR DADS

Mertome Aged Care and Retirement Village

Tuohy Aged Care Home

Fairfield Aged Care Home

There were plenty of photo opportunities on Sunday September 5, as we celebrated Father’s Day in our homes. Here are a small selection of happy snaps from Mertome Aged Care and Retirement Village in Bayswater, where they held a pool competition (complete with medals for the winners), and Tuohy in Midland, where resident Dads enjoyed an afternoon tea to celebrate.

There were also celebrations at Fairfield in NSW where Dads were given lots of treats.

TO FijiAND beyond n celebration of our Fiji and islander cultural day, residents and staff got into the spirit by dressing up in their best beach and tropical-themed outfits. Leis, grass skirts, coconuts and the odd palm Sirius Cove Aged Care Home I leaf were on show as the residents and staff watched traditional Fijian Meke dancing, which involves a combination of dancing and story-telling. Led by assistant in nursing, Shahin, the residents were encouraged to join in some dancing of their own, with some moves that were by no means traditional, but high energy and good fun all the same. Just imagine Madagascar’s ‘I like to Move I, Move it’, to get an idea of what was going on. We also enjoyed trying some freshly-made piña coladas, mojitos and fruity mocktails.

It’s only rock n’ roll . . .

but we like it!

Kensington Park Aged Care Home

At Kensington Park Aged Care Home, staff and residents put on their blue suede shoes and danced the afternoon away to some live rock n’ roll music recently. It was wonderful to see so many people getting into the spirit of things, proving that music is such a great way for folk of all ages to enjoy fun activities together. Check out some of the top moves our rock and rollers made - complete with fancy footwork and swing moves. Rock on, Kensington Park - you’re legends and we salute you.

Sculpting by the sea

McDougall Park Aged Care Home

Kensington Park Aged Care Home

Some of our homes have got crafty recently, emulating the popular Sculpture By The Sea annual exhibition of works created by local artists in WA and NSW. As you can see, the creativity of our residents is pretty impressive - and all were very pleased with the finished results.

COFFEE and CAKE for Tuia

Tuia Lodge Aged Care Home

SOME OF OUR GORGEOUS Tuia Lodge residents in Donnybrook, WA enjoyed morning tea recently at Donnybrook’s new Heritage Goods Shed Cafe and the spring sunshine that came with it. Residents at Tuia Lodge often take outings to enjoy all that the gorgeous south west region they live in has to offer.

Disco Divas

Agmaroy Aged Care Home

Our Agmaroy Aged Care Home’s staff and residents in Wilson, WA had a great time dressing up recently for a Friday Funday disco a few weeks ago. With great music, sequins, sparkles and lots of laughs everyone had the best time getting their disco on!

OT WEEK 2021

Karingal Green Health and Aged Care Community

From October 21, our talented team of OTs celebrated Occupational Therapy Week 2021, designed to thank our occupational therapists for the amazing work they do every day. Our OTs held an education day on Monday at Karingal Green Health and Aged Care Community in High Wycombe with presentations on NDIS, palliative and end-oflife care, bariatric equipment, sleep solutions, pressure injuries and mealtime positioning. Throughout the week, engaging activities were set up at our homes by our OT team and a fun quiz took place for residents and staff to enjoy. #OTWeek21

BEST FOOT FORWARD

Hall & Prior’s Occupational Therapy team got into the spirit of OT Week in October.

GAME ON

Menaville Aged Care Home

THERE IS NOTHING like a brand new game that everyone can enjoy at the same time. The noodle and ball game had the activity room in uproar as we poked, pushed, bashed and prodded the ball in different directions with our pool noodles. Watching such a large group join in a single game is perfect for encouraging social connectedness as well as strength and hand/ eye coordination. We played this game together while listening to music played through our WiFi, connecting us to YouTube, where we can listen to any artist we want to enjoy. There were many times where game players were caught out chatting and let the ball roll past them, but it was all in the spirit of the game. This type of game encourages many types of conversations, mostly based around the past sporting prowess of our residents!

Ariba, ariba!

Fairfield Aged Care Home

I

t was International Mexican Day on September 16, so never one to say no to a good fiesta, the staff at Fairfield threw a big celebration in honour of Mexico.

There was Mexican food served throughout the day for lunch, including chilli con carne, cheesy nachos, guacamole and a drop or two of Mexican beer!

Then it was time to take turns hitting the piñata, an activity which turned into something really fun as some people missed the thing altogether with the bat . The ‘Hat Dance’ was also a good excuse to get everybody up and moving. When it was time to say ‘adios’ to International Mexican Day, we decided that we loved Mexican culture and can’t wait to arm-chair travel there again soon.

Pyjama Day FUN-draising

Windsor Park Aged Care Home

THIS IS Windsor Park Aged Care Home’s Executive Manager Jayne Cummings delivering $3,620 to Fostering Hope in Wangara, WA. Our teams from Windsor Park, Mosman Park, Freshwater Bay, McDougall Park, Rockingham, Hamersley and Leighton Aged Care Homes in WA all raised money from their annual Pyjama Days recently for this wonderful cause. Congratulations to the Hall & Prior WA family for such a great effort!

FARM YARD fun

St Lukes Aged Care Home

ALL THE FUN of the Perth Royal Show came to our St Lukes Aged Care Home in Subiaco, WA recently, when visiting farm yard animals (complete with their friendly farmer!) spent the morning with our residents. Goats, chickens, piglets, guinea pigs, a miniature horse and ducks all lapped up the attention as residents took turns feeding and patting the animals and enjoyed some springtime farmyard fun. Read more about the power of animal therapy in our cover story, on page 6.

Friday Church reaches milestone

RECENTLY, KARINGAL GREEN’S Friday Church group celebrated its first anniversary.

Meeting in the cinema room at 11am every Friday, the group comes together in worship with sacred songs, scripture readings and prayer. All are welcome to come along and find hope and encouragement within our community. For more information, please ask the Karingal Green staff or call Karen Smith on 0423 690 406. Friends and family are welcome to join.

LET ’S twist AGAIN

Hamersley Aged Care Home

Recently our wonderful team at Hall & Prior’s Hamersley Aged Care Home in Subiaco, WA got together to “Spring into the 60s” and celebrate some of the music that our residents love, while also giving a nod to spring and a brand new season of life and love. A beautiful afternoon of musical nostalgia and fun was had by everyone.

Viva Espana!

Karingal Green Health and Aged Care Community

KARINGAL GREEN Health and Aged Care Community in High Wycombe embraced everything Spanish recently with a delicious paella for both residents and staff to enjoy, made by our talented chef and hospitality team. It was a popular choice enjoyed by all and staff even dressed up for the day in Spain’s national colours.

Celebrating our elders

Clover Lea Aged Care Home

The first day of October annually signifies the International Day of Older Persons and in 2021, the theme is Digital Equity for All Ages, which affirms the need for access and meaningful participation in the digital world by older persons. Back in 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as a day to make sure attention was brought to the older generation, ensuring recognition, health provisions, social care and awareness is given to those that have gone before us to help shape our world to the one we enjoy today. Clover Lea lifestyle officers enjoyed taking this special occasion as an opportunity to highlight this day to our residents and encourage discussions and awareness of the issues and challenges of ageing in today’s world. Taking this personal perspective from our residents helps us to ensure our residents are feeling a sense of value in our home society and they have a daily social and emotional connection as well as an outlet for verbalising how they are feeling and help break any negative thoughts about ageing.

A

stitch in time

Mertome Aged Care and Retirement Village

THE TALENTED LADIES at Mertome Aged Care and Retirement Village in Bayswater, WA have been putting their sewing skills to good use recently, using colourful fabrics to welcome in spring. “Our residents love getting involved and lending a helping hand and recently some of our lovely ladies assisted in making heat pack covers with the help of our therapy assistant, Jette,” said occupational therapist, Laura Wilkinson. “Many of these ladies worked as dressmakers and seamstresses or made the clothes for their children in the past, so this is a great opportunity for them to continue to engage in their previous roles and keep their hands and minds active.”

Friday night done right

Halloween was celebrated in all its ghoulish glory at the end of October with some Hall & Prior homes going all in on the spookiest day of the year. Belmont in WA saw some spectacular costumes on show as witches and wizards enjoyed a special Halloween party organised by staff for their residents. Meanwhile at Agmaroy in Wilson, WA, colourful masks were the order of the day as sweet treats were enjoyed by some of the residents.

In NSW, pumpkins, witches and face painting transformed residents at Vaucluse, Fairfield and Shangri-La aged care homes in Sydney making this Halloween a colourful one after so many days of lockdown.

LEST WE FORGET

Remembrance Day (November 11) is an incredibly important day for the Hall & Prior Group. It is a day for us to pause and commemorate our veterans and the great sacrifices they made so that we can all enjoy the freedoms we cherish today. Hall & Prior cares for almost 100 veterans at its 30 homes in WA and NSW.

Every year, CEO Graeme Prior spends time with our veterans in care to discover their amazing tales of bravery and sacrifice to be made into videos that record these stories for posterity. “We are honoured to be caring for some of Australia’s brave veterans at our homes,” Graeme said.

“Recording these stories is very important for both the history of our nation and also for their families and loved-ones to share and keep forever. “I believe we can all learn from our veterans; in the modern age they still have much to teach us about sacrifice, selflessness and resilience.”

Please visit our website - hallprior.com.au or Facebook page - facebook.com/ HallandPriorAgedCare to see the stories on November 11.