So why is our home at Gainford Street so wonderful?

Well let me tell you...

Our residents enjoy a wide range of activities such as indoor bowls, swimming, YMCA and horse riding.

We also have a mutually beneficial relationshop with our local church - St Christophers.  Each week our residents are visited by one of two volunteers who come to our home.  This is a great social time for everyone, there's always so much to catch each other up on.

Every couple of months we have two ladies, who have an afiliation with Delta Friendship Trust, come and cook wonderful asian food for us.  The aromas from the kitchen are simply devine - enough to tempt anyones taste buds.

The physical situatuon of our home is within easy walking distance to Avonhead Mall.  The shop owners there have come to know us very well.

We are also situated close to several parks, where we often go for a walk or to have a picnic or simply just lie back and enjoy the sun.

The staff in our home are very enthusiastic and creative, and new initiatives that provide motivation, entertainment or stimulation are always just are around the corner.

In a nutshell, our home is so wonderful because of the people who live here, the people who work here, the people who visit here and of course because of all the people we meet along the way.

All of the people who live in our home are encouraged to help with meal preparation to some degree.  We implement training programmes for those people who need to learn food preparation and safe food handling skills.

Each week we have a residents meeting and it is then that the following weeks menu is discussed.  We ensure that every resident has a choice in the menu - for those who cannot communicate verbally we have a picture book from which they can select their choice from. Several people often like to have family or friends over for dinner, and when they do we encourage them to decide what meal they would like to have, assist with cooking it, and then they play host to their guests and sit back and enjoy.

This pergola was designed (not built though) by the staff in our home.

We are very lucky that our backyard has all day sun which is great for BBQ's (which we have often in the summer), playing cricket, gardening or just lying in the sun.

Then after all that activity we can sit in the shelter of the pergola with a nice cold lemonade and just un-wind.

What a great life.

Each year we aim to have a Team Buliding Day for our staff.

It is a time when people who because of different shifts do not always work together, have the opportunity to learn more about each other and see each other in "non-work mode".

The days are always very different, very surprising and always alot of fun.

It is my belief that the result of these days, along with the staff dinners, is a team of highly motivated and positive staff who take their responsibilities as carers to a higher level and therefore treating our residents with the respect and dignity they deserve, and most of all the knowledge that they live in a home where people really care about the quality of their life - simply because we appreciate the quality of our own.