Estate Living Magazine Retirement Living - Issue 40 April 2019 | Page 27

P R O P E R T Y
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is typical of a mature lifestyle village that facilitates the shift from
independence to mid-care or assisted living. The Somerset,
a resort-style village in Somerset West near Cape Town, offers
Call4Care home care, which lets residents activate two-way
communication with a caregiver simply by pushing a red button
in their home. The Call4Care system operates with ER24, which
means it’s able to provide around-the-clock ER24 medical
emergency service if needed – and Mediclinic Vergelegen is
located barely a kilometre away.
Frail care … but only after active ageing
Groenkloof Glen Retirement Village (groenkloof.net) has access
to the communal facilities of Groenkloof George Retirement
Village, which include designated areas for pottery and home
industries. Here, residents can stay busy and productive, which
gives them a sense of purpose and usefulness. That’s important
for people at any age – and it’s absolutely vital to the elderly.
Groenkloof offers retirement communities across the Garden
Route, from George to Great Brak River, all of which follow
a holistic care approach that considers the residents’ overall
wellbeing – including physical, spiritual and emotional health.
A care manager is appointed to provide emotional counselling
and guidance for residents and their families as retirement turns
(as it inevitably does) to old age.
Specialised care for dementia
Some retirement villages or estates – like Randjes Estate
(randjesestate.co.za) in Johannesburg’s Highlands North –
are able to offer Memory Care to residents with dementia
or Alzheimer’s. Others do, but only to a point. Groenkloof,
while being a member of Alzheimer’s South Africa and while
offering high-care facilities for residents with dementia, is
one of many estates that cannot support residents living with
advanced Alzheimer’s. Instead they assist those residents in
being transferred to highly specialised villages, like Jura Care
Village (juracare.co.za) in George. The more research is done
into neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, the more
researchers realise how much modern science does not know
about them. Increasingly, mature living estates are accepting
their limitations in this regard, and are leaving this niche care to
the specialists.
Mark van Dijk
Loneliness is a killer. That was one of the key insights gleaned
from a landmark 2010 Harvard study, which found that people
who kept warm relationships lived longer and happier lives
– with study author Professor Robert Waldinger saying:
‘Loneliness is as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.’ Guided by
that thinking, more and more retirement estates are realising
how important it is for residents to have a healthy, active social
life – and how important it is to keep busy! Evergreen Lifestyle
(evergreenlifestyle.co.za) has a nationwide portfolio of villages,
each of which has a state-of-the-art lifestyle centre. With their
open-plan lounges, libraries, games rooms and so on, these
Extra focus on emotional wellness
E
Community living
centres provide a central hub for community gatherings – and
for the various clubs, societies and hobby groups that meet
more regularly.
Many retirement estates are now moving away from frail care
centres to home-based nursing, recognising the changing needs
of today’s active and independent retirees. Modern medical
care means that (generally speaking, and provided they’ve taken
care of themselves) today’s 80-year-olds are stronger, fitter and
healthier than the octogenarians of generations past. So while
a retirement village like Eastlands Mature Lifestyle Estate in
Benoni North, for example, does have a 16-bed frail care centre
that provides 24-hour frail care, its emphasis is on encouraging
active ageing. The estate’s management understands how
today’s over-50s are growing old, and as a result have prioritised
physical activity at the village’s lifestyle centre for long-term
health and wellness.
I N V E S T M E N T