practical living
Exercise physiologist Ben Gonano with a client. All photos: supplied
such as the referrals he now gets from a
local surgeon whose waiting list is bulging.
The doctor told Ben that by referring
patients to the wellness centre and
improving their fitness, they’ve been
able to avoid surgery. Ben tells me this
as he puts me through my paces on the
balance machine.
This machine is another big part of
the wellness centre. It’s primarily used
to improve a person’s balance in order
to avoid falls, but Ben has also used it
to treat people with MS, and he’s had
significant results.
The balance training often involves
showing video games on the screen in
front of the user, and Deborah delights
in recalling the competition and rivalries
this has created among some of BCAC’s
nearby retirement community.
MUTUAL BENEFITS
‘It’s about quality of life’
A day at Bankstown
City Aged Care.
By Conor Burke
“
T
here are just so many different
intersecting touchpoints,” beams
Deborah Key, chief executive of
Bankstown City Aged Care. “It’s just a lovely
sense of community.” She speaks in soft,
quick bursts, almost as if she can’t hold in
her pride at the work being done here.
I am here to visit BCAC and its
wellness centre, which was developed
in consultation with Western Sydney
University and opened in late 2017. I’m
barely through the door before I’m hurried
onto one of its state-of-the-art exercise
machines.
I push the weights on the leg press
slowly, acutely aware of how unfit I am, as
Deborah and resident exercise physiologist
Ben Gonano smile either side of me. The
machine counts reps, ups the weight and
collects the data.
All the pneumatic equipment BCAC uses
was sourced from a company based in
Finland, HUR, which specialises in machines
for active ageing and rehabilitation. The
use of air, instead of weights, allows for
maximum strength training or minimum
weights, all with a lower risk of injury.
24 agedcareinsite.com.au
In the room to my right is a group of
home care recipients having a yarn over
a cup of tea as they wait for the chair
yoga class.
They are picked up and driven here once
a week for some socialising and fitness
classes, but the centre is open Monday to
Friday for the aged care residents, home
care recipients, retirement residents and
the community at large.
This centre is about mental and social
wellness as well as the physical, Deborah
tells me.
“We wanted evidence-based, quality
service,” she says. “There is no financial
benefit for us, it’s about quality of life.”
COMMUNITY WELLNESS
Ben, a former WSU student, has worked
in fitness for years at various commercial
gyms, but he doesn’t have the typical gym
instructor quality about him. He is calm,
well-spoken and listens attentively when
you speak to him.
He liked the commercial gym world, but
here it’s different, he says. Here he sees
the “huge differences” he can make to a
person’s quality of life.
He tells me how he was approached by
his former lecturer, Simon Green, to take on
the task of setting up this facility, and he lists
other proud moments from his time here,
Simon Green’s involvement started with an
email from Deborah, and they immediately
shared a vision for what the wellness centre
would be.
“What was particularly important was
Deborah’s philosophy: the way she went
about things. I could see that she was trying
to achieve really good things in a difficult
work space,” Green says.
He sees the relationship as a mutually
beneficial one: as the wellness centre
improves the lives of residents, he hopes it
can also yield research for the university.
“As a research organisation, we have a lot
to learn from an aged care centre in terms
of the way they do things and the problems
they face,” he says.
“I also think we have a responsibility
to help train and educate the people that
work within Bankstown City Age Care to
be a little bit more research aware.”
Green also wants the relationship
to breed the next generation of aged
care workers.
“When the wellness centre was opened
in late 2017, in about the same month we
had the first of our students placed there:
two students from our program in the third
year,” he says.
This was followed by seven students
in 2018, and to date around 15 have
completed their 140-hour placements
at BCAC.
“We have a very important role to play,
and the graduates will become part of the
workforce of the future. And the thing is, if
you do this properly, there’s no doubt you
will improve aged care,” he says. And like
most people I’ve encountered so far, Green