Kangaroo Point - St Vincent's Care Services
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
St Vincent’s Care Services
Kangaroo Point
Message from the Facility Manager – Dale Hewerdine
Hi residents and relatives established her mission in Australia, and our
organisation, St Vincent's Care Services. It gives
Firstly, thank you to all the residents and
me great faith in the future that our younger
relatives who attended the Ekka Country and
generation are concerned about the welfare of
Western Show Day BBQ on Tuesday 14 August
other people and their country enough to make
to celebrate in your best farmer styles, and help
such selfless efforts from such a young age.
raise money for the farmers in our A Fiver for a
Farmer appeal. It was a great effort from all the You would be aware that our Clinical Manager
residents to raise almost $400 from the market Ellen has recently transferred to St Vincent’s
day selling fruit and Devonshire teas, and then Care Services Community Living to begin a new
the BBQ day bringing our total up to $820 with chapter in her life. I interviewed some candidates
the involvement of staff, relatives and visitors. for the Clinical Manager role last week and
What a tremendous effort. I have not seen that should be able to make an announcement about
many checks, jeans and cowboy hats in the one the successful person shortly.
place for a long time! To date, the appeal (which Take care and talk soon!
was started by a 10 year old NSW schoolboy)
has raised over $900,000 for the farmers!!
The spirit of generosity, caring, giving and
Dale Hewerdine Facility
assisting those who are less fortunate,
manager
vulnerable or in need is very much in line with Facility Manager
photo
the mission of our foundress Mary Aikenhead. St Vincent’s Care Services
(2.5x2.5cm)
Under her guidance, the Sisters of Charity Kangaroo Point
St Vincent’s Care Services Kangaroo Point
Facility Newsletter
September 2018
A Fiver for a Farmer BBQ On Tuesday 14 August 2018, we had a Country and Western Show Day for the Ekka. A BBQ lunch was served in the courtyard for approximately 130 residents, staff and family members. Everyone dressed up in their finest farmer clothes and generously donated to a great cause. Combined with the market day money we raised $820 for A Fiver for a Farmer. Thank you to everyone who came along and donated.
Seniors Week 2018 We celebrated this year with a intergenerational choir performance – a combination of voices from the children of East Brisbane State School Class 3H and our Marycrest Melody Choir. It was a great morning filled with song and dance and some wonderful jokes from Sr Cecile. A lovely poem was also was read by Laurie, and Ian concluded our morning with a prayer and blessing. A great morning was had by all who attended. Thank you to everyone involved for helping to make such a wonderful event. Elvis concert The Elvis concert with Romeo and Juliette was the big highlight for the week with 75 people coming along to watch the King perform some of his most famous songs. We finished off the day in the courtyard for Happy hour, which was a great way to end the week.
Pastoral Care news
Greetings to residents and families,
August has been a busy month here and the weather has been quite pleasant. We have welcomed
some new residents, we have had our own special Ekka week activities and we have celebrated
Seniors Week in great style. The Seniors Week concert was a great success, and it was wonderful to
watch our Marycrest Melody Choir and the East Brisbane State School children performing together.
In our monthly Armchair Philosophers discussion group, we came together to explore The seven
blessings that come with ageing. At first, we jokingly said these might be bad knees, sore feet,
hearing loss, dentures, etc.! But then we honed in on the seven blessings that are suggested by 82
year old American writer and Benedictine Sister, Joan Chittister. Sister Joan suggests that these
blessings may be – perspective, time, freedom, newness, tale telling, relationships and
transcendence. Some very lively and interesting discussion was generated in our group – so much
that we ran out of time to explore all seven of the suggested blessings!
We agreed that perspective could indicate that elders have a good sense of what really matters in
life; freedom means that elders now have fewer responsibilities than in their earlier life; and that this
may give them more time to enjoy the present.
I asked the members of our group about the concept of newness – if they had done anything since
coming to Marycrest that they had never attempted before. I suspect that several would answer yes,
as our Lifestyle and Pastoral Care programs enable residents to join a choir, be part of a book club, a
discussion group, a fund raising committee, learn how to use a computer, and engage in meditation,
yoga, or tai chi!
An interesting aspect arising from our discussion and exchange of ideas, was the importance of good
communication between elders and younger people – something we have a great opportunity to
achieve here, as our residents are largely in the elders category and many of our staff members are
quite youthful! I do believe that our residents have a great deal of wisdom to share, and we
encourage them to do so.
We might resume the topic of The seven blessings that come with ageing at another Philosophy
session, as we did not really touch on tale telling, relationships or transcendence. Of course, I did
stress that tale telling had nothing to do with telling fibs or gossip, but relaying our life stories and
reminiscing. So we look forward to that and to delving into the concept of transcendence.
Enjoy the month ahead – we have lots of great activities and events coming up and Spring is just
around the corner!
Peace and Blessings,
Margaret, Ian, Fr James and the Volunteers
Pastoral Care Team
At St Vincent’s Care Services, we make you the priority — and we welcome your feedback.
If you have compliments or suggestions about our services, or wish to raise a concern, please
come and see us, fill out a feedback form at reception, or email the Facility Manager:
Dale.Hewerdine@svha.org.audale.hewerdine@svha.org.au
The Australian Government’s Aged Care Complaints commissioner provides a free service for
anyone wishing to raise their concerns about the quality of care or services being delivered to
people receiving aged care services at a government-funded facility.
www.agedcarecomplaints.gov.au | 1800 550 552
St Vincent’s Care Services Kangaroo Point
Phone: 07 3240 1268
Email: svcs.kangaroopoint@svha.org.au
Website: www.svcs.org.au
You can also read
