Here is something to think about.
We at The Donaldson Sisters are biased towards retirement villages because they offer ‘real community’.
They combat loneliness and isolation with like-minded people keeping an eye on each other every day and night of the week. (Loneliness and isolation are the most damaging of health issues and is indeed ‘cruel’).
And in times like bushfires, retirement villages really kick in because they are a structured community of support.
They have plans and policies in place like evacuation plans, fire policies, registries of all residents and their families to communicate with.
Retirement villages have fire hydrants and other systems that must be annually checked.
And they have a management team who knows every resident and has a duty of care
Compare this to an elderly person living alone, unable to drive, not very mobile, requiring daily medication in a standard home relatively unknown in her own street and family living in another state.
The Chief Operating Officer of retirement community operator Ingenia, Nikki Fisher, told us this week that her staff in Brisbane worked through Christmas and New Year 24/7 sending out over 10,000 emails and SMS messages to families from their fire-affected communities alone.
They also coordinating emergency support to Ingenia’s communities and staff on the ground, organising things like satellite phones, emergency supply of medications, generators and more.
Ingenia also had full fire insurance across all their communities – so their residents are truly protected.
Sadly, the elderly person living alone in their own home, isolated is just that – on their own.
In this regard, retirement villages are ‘priceless’.
Images courtesy of Ingenia.
