REDHS Yalukang Aged Care resident Mary Cavallaro has been a resident for almost a year now. Photo: Lua Ikenasio.
The Rochester Elmore and District Health Service has recently opened up the final wing of its Yalukang Aged Care facility.
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When the facility reopened in January this year, fewer than 20 Rochester residents who had lived there before the 2022 floods returned, filling only a fraction of the 60-bed centre.
Since then, REDHS has gradually reopened more rooms, with the final wing containing the last 20 rooms, now complete.
There are now 50 residents at Yalukang, leaving just ten rooms to be filled before the facility reaches full capacity.
REDHS chief executive Mary Manescu said that the demand for aged care spots in Rochester is still strong.
“We had calls from the moment we opened,” she said.
“We returned under 20 residents (in January) and since then, we are at 50 residents.
“We were led to believe that with the floods, people would probably be either moving on somewhere else or not really requiring aged care services, but we did not experience a decline.
“In in-home care, there's excess in demand... people want to live at home, be cared for at home, and Rochy seems to have similar interest in those services.
“Being cared at home means that your need for residential aged care is not as high, but there are still some members of the community that either haven't got a lot of family connections... or they don’t have the assets but have some connection to the area.”
Rooms in the new wing will mirror the rest of the facility.
Photo by
Emily Donohoe
While the need to recruit sufficient staff has been a major factor in delaying the opening of more rooms, the facility is expected to have full staffing in place this month.
The rooms in the new wing mirror the rest of the facility — newly refurbished, spacious single rooms with garden views and plenty of natural light.
Residents also have access to a wide range of activities and services, including church and library programs, community connection activities, and freshly prepared meals.
Long-time resident Mary Cavallaro, who has lived at Yalukang since it reopened, said despite difficulty adjusting in the beginning, she now enjoys her time at the facility.
“I've been finding it quite good, I’m very happy with it,” she said.
“Even though this was my hometown, I was born and raised here, it was hard to adjust... but I came back here because two members of my family are back here at Rochester.
“I have made a lot of friends, but of course, I knew a lot of people before I left here.”
With new residents continuing to move in, Ms Manescu said REDHS is seeking feedback from residents and their families to help improve its services.
“We're going to release a little questionnaire, as the community advisory committee... felt that they wanted to hear from the community,” she said.
“That might be residents, it might be family of residents, might be friends or others who know about the services that we're delivering.
“There's always questionnaires done by the department of health, but this is a little bit more specific to community members, which is quite nice.”
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