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106 Business View Australia - July 2015

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.”

HEALTHCARE