4 / 10
provided with an ensuite bathroom.
A 12 seater bus is available for taking
residents on outings and a wide variety
of recreation programs are organised
for their benefit. Every effort is directed
towards improving the quality of life
of the residents and music therapy,
physiotherapy, podiatry and hairdressing
facilities are available on site.
The establishment of
Lynden Aged Care
Ann Turnbull recounts the early days
of the facility, “Lynden Aged Care
opened in 1979. The Mayor of the
City of Camberwell formed a ladies
auxiliary who did some fund raising,
the Council donated some land and so
the first 30 bed low care hostel was
built. Six or seven years later, a 30 bed
nursing home was added and then a
few years later a 20 bed extra service
wing was added. So we are an 80 bed,
stand-alone, community-based, not-
for-profit residential aged care facility.”
As LyndenAgedCarehas expanded, the
industry has matured and government
rules and regulations have been
introduced to ensure that the facilities
meet the laid down criteria. Ann Turnbull
describes the changes over the years,
“There has been a huge change. One
of the main changes is that the industry
has become regulated. Back in the
70’s there were very few laws about
how aged care should be provided and
so there were a lot of rogue operators
who really took advantage of the
situation. Now all that has changed.
Another big change is that rooms which
accommodated six beds have now been
replaced with single rooms and in fact,
the law says that you cannot have more
thanmore than four people ina roomand
we encourage people to bring furniture
fromhome so that they feel comfortable.
The big change really is that it is much
more about making residential aged
care a place that you are happy to be
in rather than a place of last resort. The
government encourages people to stay
at home as long as they can because
that costs themlessmoney. Somoreand
more services are being made available
to help people stay in their homes but
there are people who cannot stay in their
own homes and need to come into care.
Mostlybecausepeoplehavegot some
level of dementia and are not able to
make their own decisions. They forget
whether or not they have had their
tablets, forget whether or not they have
eaten, because they don’t understand
what being hungry feels like. They are
just not safe at home on their own.”