industry & policy
make. If someone needs someone to just sit with them, then there’s
the capacity to do that.
Obviously we’re not talking about staffing ratios, because it’s
about having flexibility around people’s individual care needs. But
it is very much about empowering staff to work to their strengths,
and to bring their personalities to work every day, to be part of
this community.
What about other staff? For the cafe and the beauty salon, for
example? Would they be Glenview employees?
We’re in the process of negotiating a lot of that detail, and what
we have agreed is that regardless of whether staff are employed
by Glenview, or whether they’re local businesses that are running
the services, there is an agreement that all staff will go through
dementia training so that everybody that is there, in a paid capacity
or as a volunteer, is absolutely clear on what they can do to help,
what they can do in terms of discreet observation, etc.
So we’ve set up a whole framework whereby everybody in the
village will have the skills to be able to help.
The Korongee site is partially inspired by De Hogeweyk. What
elements of that model do you hope to emulate in Tasmania?
When we went and spoke to the guys that run De Hogeweyk, we
asked: “If you could do this again, would you do it the same?” The
answer was no.
So what we’ve been able to take from that are the learnings.
They’ve clearly said: “Look, what we built was for the Dutch
community.” So what we’ve done is we’ve said: “Okay, let’s
take the principles of small community living, and the reality of
having real‑life activities, and re al commercial enterprises, and
opportunities for people.”
So we’ll translate that into a design that reflects Tasmania, so
around cul-de-sacs – if you took an aerial shot of where the site is,
that’s what you will see in the broader community.
One key thing they said was: “Look, we put this in the
community. We didn’t actually make it an integral part of the
community.” So we’ve already been working with local residents
and the local school that’s neighbouring this property, and we’ve
talked about how we actually make this a part of a community
and involve the community in how this runs.
So it’s very much about the feel of this service, and for Glenview
as an organisation, part of our role is advocating for change and
challenging the myths about ageing and particularly dementia.
But I have to say, this whole philosophy, this whole project,
wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the social impact
investment from HESTA, through Social Ventures Australia, and a
very small contribution from the Commonwealth.
HESTA’s contributed $19 million of the $25 million that it will
take to build this village, and I think that is a phenomenal marriage
in terms of the industry super actually funding the industry in
creating this kind of transformative change.
You said you’ll be adapting the model for the Tasmanian
context. What other tweaks do you plan to make?
There are 15 six-bedroom houses. There are six bedrooms because
that’s how many people you can fit round a dining room table, and
I’m pretty sure you’ve probably only got one dining room table in
your house, so it’s about using the philosophy of more than one
dining room table becomes institutional.
Then we look at the makeup of those houses, and we’re working
with the University of Tasmania to identify the most prominent
Glenview Korongee services hub. Photo: HESTA
lifestyles in Tasmania. And that’s reflective of what we have in Tassie:
a diverse community of different backgrounds and experiences. To
give you an example, because we won’t know what this looks like
till the research is finished, if you’ve always been a tradie, you’re up
early, you knock off at lunch, finish at three, you might have a beer
after work, you might watch the footy on a Friday, mow the lawns
and so on. That’s stereotypical, but what I’m saying is if you live with
other people who have that lifestyle, there’s likely to be something
in common. So for us, it’s about looking at what those lifestyles are,
and what that means in terms of familiarity for residents.
We imagine there’ll be six or seven different lifestyles we’ll be able
to use, which will also influence the design of these houses and the
sort of activities that are maybe put into place by the staff. The staff
will be integral in identifying what those various elements might
look like, but we have to do the research first.
What are the challenges in undertaking projects like this?
Look, it’s always easier to do a greenfield site, which is about
creating something from scratch. What we haven’t, as an industry, is
a brownfield site – sites that are coming to the end of their usability.
It’s much more expensive to actually redesign, and I empathise with
the industry. We’re in the same situation with an existing facility,
where it’s really hard to get the kind of change that you want to
have, to be able to get the outcomes that you want to have, when
you’re looking at limited resources.
So having a greenfield site where we can do this from scratch,
somebody’s got to be the first. We’re the first in Australia, and we
know this will be something we would like to be able to share our
learnings on how we’ve done this, to help other people to get there.
I would say we’re not the first in terms of wanting to do something
like this. We’re just the first in terms of having the resources and the
partnerships to be able to make it happen.
What else would you like people to know about dementia villages
generally, or about Korongee?
Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia,
and if you’re a woman, it’s the leading cause. The reality is that
as a community we need to understand that if we don’t do
something about this now, we’re in strife. Tassie’s got the fastest
ageing population of all the states and territories, so we have a
responsibility to put the best effort forward.
We need to look at the changing demographics of our client
groups. People don’t come to residential aged care if they can live
at home, and we as an industry support people to stay at home as
long as possible. But when we do get to that point where people
need safe accommodation, and supported accommodation, we
need to do this differently. We can no longer continue to offer the
same services we’ve been offering, and the industry is working
successfully to make that change.
So while I’m sure everybody would love a dementia village in
each state and territory, we have an enormous challenge in terms
of the way funding works in this country, and we’re struggling as an
industry to work collaboratively with governments to make these
sorts of innovations possible. ■
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