Winter Family Gathering

Tuesday the 29th of July at 2pm

We would love you to join us!

It is hard to believe that it is winter already and we have had our 1^st year anniversary here at Millvale Napier. It has been an absolute pleasure to care for your family members. 

Stage 1 of our renovations is almost complete. It looks fantastic. The builders are focusing on the outside pathways, gardens and fencing. Plants are being planted, and curtains will soon be hung. It will not be long before we move in now.  Angela, Suzette and Fran would like to take to this opportunity to thank all the staff for their support during the renovations.

Our Winter Family Gathering is coming up and our Activities Team is putting their heads together to make this a fun occasion. Our gathering will be held on Tuesday the 29^th of July at 2pm. Please mark this on your calendar. We would love to see you all!

Our Activities Team are doing a great job of keeping the residents engaged. We hope you are enjoying the pictures we are posting on our Facebook page. We have been spending a lot of one-on-one time with our residents. They have been enjoying what we call Pedal Power, which is a pedal-like machine that the residents are encouraged to use with either their feet or hands. We also have a beach ball that we kick or throw around either in a group or individually. The ladies at Millvale Napier love their nails filed and then painted. It was lovely to get out and about with Driving Miss Daisy, seeing all the snow on the ranges and all the boats at the Marina. It was a huge success.

We have welcomed two new Registered Nurses, Priya and Jinu, and Priyanka joins us as a Caregiver. We also said farewell to our Caregiver, Adrian.

Angela left for maternity leave late April and on the 8^th of May, Angela, Lucio and Angelo welcomed a wee girl, Lucia Angela. She is absolutely gorgeous, and they are all doing well. 

We are fortunate to now have Suzette as our Acting Clinical Manager. She is doing a fantastic job. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to talk with Suzette or Fran. Please knock on our door or give us a call.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Winter Family Gathering.

Kia tupato kia noho haumaru me te mahana I te takurua.

Greetings everyone

It feels like we are now well into the winter months and we are needing to keep everyone rugged up around our homes. Our winter menu helps to keep everyone warm too with lots of hearty food and warm soups. I always enjoy the smell of these wafting through our homes when I visit.

We had some disappointing news recently, that the pay equity claims were stopped by the Government. Caregiver pay has effectively been paused since 2022 and we had been working as part of an employer group to help progress these claims. This has a large impact on our team. It is hard to see the wonderful work our care team do not rewarded in the way it should be.

I am reminded of the quote “work is love made visible”, and this is never more true than for our care staff. Whether it be sharing a funny story, enjoying some music or just having a cup of tea together in the sun, our team work to ensure our residents enjoy some magic moments each day. These actions flow through to all of our lives.

We have been writing to MPs and Government ministers about this and we would encourage you to as well if you feel strongly about this cause.

On another note, as you will see in this newsletter we have a lot on the go to improve and extend our aged care services. It is really pleasing to see the results coming out of these projects.

Andrew Sheard, Managing Director

Rhea Abordonado has taken up a new role as the National Operational Support Leader around our homes.

This is a new role which includes travelling to our homes and working with the operations managers and coordinators to assist them in various aspects of their roles. Rhea will be helping them to grow and develop, looking for areas for improvement and facilitating learning from each other within the operations side of our homes.

The operations role is a varied one which is crucial to the running of our homes. It involves:

• Looking after our staff teams
• Overseeing our food service
• Quality requirements
• Overseeing the laundry service
• Managing building maintenance and contractors
• Marketing our home

Rhea knows our organisation inside out and has already been taking a leadership role around our homes in the wider Wellington area. It is great to have her expanding this role and helping our operations team to build on the great work that they do.

Resident Long Term Care Plan

A long-term care plan for residents in aged care is a structured process used to assess, document, and meet a resident’s physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. It ensures that each person receives personalised and consistent care based on their preferences, health conditions, and overall wellbeing. Developing a care plan is crucial to the care of a person.

Its importance:

• It promotes holistic, person-centred care.  We think of the four dimensions of the Māori health model Te Whare Tapa Whā and consider physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and family/social wellbeing.
• With family involvement we learn more about the person being cared for and we hear family thoughts on care.  Often family/EPOA are sharing the journey with their loved one.
• It helps staff provide safe and appropriate support.
• It guides day-to-day decisions and helps manage changing health needs.
• It ensures continuity of care across shifts and disciplines.

Family Involvement

Families are a valuable part of the care planning process. Your insights into your loved one’s preferences, routines, history, and values help us create a plan that truly reflects who they are.

We encourage you to:

• Participate in initial and regular care plan meetings.
• Share any changes or concerns you notice.
• Ask questions and provide feedback at any time.  This also can give us an opportunity to support you too.

Our Role

The facility’s care team, including registered nurses, caregivers, allied health professionals, and diversional therapists and activity coordinators take responsibility for a care plan.  

To begin with, we bring the person into our mind and our hearts and together we ask questions to help us work out what is required to meet the holistic needs of each resident.  This team is responsible for:

• Assessing your loved one’s needs.
• Developing and reviewing the care plan regularly or when needs change.
• Communicating with families and the resident about changes in care.
• Ensuring all staff follow the care plan to provide consistent support.

A Living Document

The care plan is not a one-time document – it is living and evolving. It changes as your loved one’s needs, preferences, or health status change. Regular reviews ensure it stays relevant and responsive.

By working together, families and the care team can ensure your loved one receives the most respectful, dignified, and compassionate care possible. Your voice matters and you are always welcome on this journey alongside your loved one.  You are part of the team.

Dementia Care NZ Clinical Team

Thank you for your feedback

At each of our rest homes around the country we have a regular family focus group. These groups are facilitated by Peter Hume who works for Dementia Care NZ from Christchurch. Sessions are aimed at getting some feedback from family members who visit often about how we can improve.

We ask questions like: How can we make life better for your loved one here?  How can we make life easier for you?  How can we support you more? At these meetings we often receive a gem of an idea that we take forward and put into action.

This year we had a session at Millvale House Napier. The family members were generally very positive about the care their loved ones receive and were enthusiastic about moving into the newly renovated wing when it opens.

They also had some suggestions which we are following up:

• Investigate whether pet therapy groups can visit more regularly.
• Look for hairdresser who can visit regularly.
• Investigate whether we can get a podiatrist to come into the home.
• Home names – the focus group participants suggested a couple of names and will think about this further and feed back to Fran if they have further ideas.

We would like to thank everyone who was able to come to the family focus group. We really appreciate your time providing us with this feedback. We will continue to update you as we make progress with the issues raised in the focus groups.

If you have some feedback for us please do get in touch, and we also appreciate hearing your thoughts through the EPOA survey.

Magic Moments

One of our residents was tickled pink that we remembered his birthday and celebrated with a cake and card. He brings the card out often to show the staff that we remembered.

We had an outing yesterday and one of our residents saw all the fresh snow on the Ruahine ranges. He told us all stories of him as a young man tramping through those ranges, and how later in life he took groups through as a guide. He was so excited to be able to share his memories, it was really lovely. He thanked the driver and said it was the best day of his life.