We extend our warmest greetings to you in our first newsletter for 2025. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Our annual Christmas Gathering was a fun-filled afternoon for residents, their families, friends, and staff. It was such a lovely occasion. We were also very fortunate to welcome some very special visitors, the children who came to sing Christmas carols.

It is wonderful to see the enjoyment of the residents taking part in the daily activities of family life here in their home and we recently enjoyed a lovely barbeque in our garden. Our activities team continue to plan this year’s activities to include regular van trips around the bays, garden walks, baking, musical afternoons, sing alongs, pampering sessions and arts and crafts. As always, homely activities play an important role in our daily lives. We will continue to have live music with our pianist, Joanne every Saturday. Whakaahuru Singers will continue their monthly visits, on the 4th Tuesday of the month.

We have recently replaced the carpets in the lounges and hallways and repainted the walls with a new colour scheme. This has brightened our home and has been very much enjoyed.

We would like to welcome our newly hired RN, Neena. Neena is an International Registered Nurse who started as a Caregiver and has completed the requirements to become a New Zealand Registered Nurse. It was sad to say goodbye to Jaimol James who resigned for an opportunity abroad.

We also welcome Simon Hamley to our home. We are very happy that Simon, the Education Coordinator and Mental Health Nurse for Dementia Care NZ, is now working from Millvale House Miramar. You might see him sometimes around our home.

We wish to extend an especially warm welcome to our new residents. We are really enjoying getting to know their families and friends as they become an important part of our home. This year, an area of focus is enabling and helping families who wish to be more involved in their loved ones’ care.

We thank you for all your feedback from the family survey last year. We encourage everyone’s participation as it helps us to improve our services. Together we are a team with the same goal; to ensure that your loved ones feel happy, valued, and loved.

It was a busy start to the year with many things on the go around our rest homes.

While we didn’t have the best summer weather wise, our residents still enjoyed the summer months with Christmas festivities, barbeques outside and van trips out to the beach among other destinations. It always makes everyone feel a bit brighter when we can open the doors and enjoy our outdoor areas a little more.

We have been getting underway with projects to improve our clinical care. You will read more about these projects through the newsletter.

I wish you and your whānau a great year ahead!

Andrew Sheard, Managing Director

Projects to help our residents feel comfortable and cared for

At all of our homes, we are always striving to improve the care and well-being of our residents. One of the ways we do this is through our clinical projects - important initiatives that help us provide the best possible care. These projects focus on a range of areas, from improving comfort and managing health conditions to enhancing the overall quality of life for our residents. Two areas we have been focusing on recently are tissue viability and pain management - both of which are important in helping our residents lead more comfortable and healthier lives.

Tissue Viability

Tissue viability simply refers to the health of the skin and underlying tissues. As we age, our skin becomes more fragile, making it more prone to wounds, ulcers, and pressure sores. These can be painful and difficult to heal. Our team is dedicated to preventing and managing these issues by using the latest treatments and strategies to keep the skin and tissues in the best condition possible. This helps to avoid complications and promotes quicker, healthier healing when issues arise.

Pain Management

Pain can be a common challenge for older adults especially in people with dementia, whether from chronic conditions, injuries, or daily discomfort. Managing pain effectively is a key part of our approach to care. We know how important it is for our residents to feel comfortable, so we’re working hard to provide personalised pain management plans. This includes everything from medication to physical therapy and alternative non-pharmacological treatments to ensure our residents are as pain-free as possible.

Ongoing Projects and Care Plans

Our clinical team is working together to create comprehensive care guides that focus on both tissue viability and pain management. We’ve been developing new strategies for:

• Early detection of tissue damage to prevent further complications.
• Pain management plans that are personalised to each patient’s needs, aiming for minimal discomfort during treatment.
• Education for staff on the evidenced based techniques in wound care and pain relief, ensuring that everyone involved in resident care is equipped with the best resources.
• Innovative dressings and treatments for wounds to promote faster healing.

At the end of the day, our goal is simple: we want every resident to feel comfortable, cared for, and valued. By improving tissue health and managing pain, we are helping our residents live more fulfilling lives. We are committed to making their time here as comfortable and joyful as possible.

Urmee Dean, National Clinical and Quality Lead

Enhancing our food service

We are doing some work to enhance our approach to mealtimes with our residents. Mealtimes are such an important part of every day life from appreciating the smell of fresh food wafting through our home as it is cooked, to offering an opportunity to socialise, and of course enjoying a favourite meal.

As part of the food project that we have been working on, we have surveyed residents and family members who visit at mealtimes to see what their experiences are. As you would expect, feedback has been varied.

One of our goals is to make mealtimes a more sociable experience. We are working to come up with some ideas on how we can improve the atmosphere at the dining tables.

We are also looking at extending the time that breakfast will be available to allow residents to wake in their own time and eat at their leisure. Everyone has a different circadian rhythm, so we want to make sure our meals fit with early birds and night owls alike!

If you have any thoughts about our meal service, please get in touch with the Operations Manager at your home.

Chris Booth, Quality and Systems Manager

Televisions in our homes

At most of our homes for people with dementia, we do not have a TV in the communal lounge. There are good reasons for this. Some people with dementia experience problems with a TV in the communal lounge.

Some struggle to differentiate between what is real and what is not. This can sometimes trigger distress or behaviour of concern if programmes depicting violence or destruction are shown.

People with dementia often cannot cope with a number of stimuli at one time. For this reason, we encourage focused social interaction and participation in familiar homely activities. It is important for people with dementia to have times of quiet. Like many of us, they need peaceful times of reflection each day. Every person is so different. Past experience has shown us that in a home for people with dementia invariably there is someone who wants the TV on all the time and repetitively turns the TV on each time he or she passes it.

We have regular movie afternoons for our residents, arranged by our diversional therapists. Families are also welcome to install a TV in their loved one’s bedroom if they feel they would enjoy having access to a television set.

Pillars – Supporting positive futures for whānau of people serving a sentence

Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou is a charity that actively supports the tamariki and whānau of people in prison or those serving a community-based sentence.

Every year we donate to Pillars and ask the businesses we work with if they are able to contribute.

These contributions make such a difference to the families of people in prison. Children of people in prison are 10 times more likely to go to prison without intervention. The Pillars programme helps to reverse this trend.

Pillars social workers provide advocacy, education, resources, and support. Some examples include housing, work and income and linking whānau into other supports such as counselling and rehabilitative programmes.

Once a family has received social work support, Mentoring Coordinators match the tamariki with a trusted adult from a community of volunteers. These volunteers are trained and supported by Mentoring Coordinators and are well prepared to provide the tamariki with experiences and opportunities outside of their horizons. 

Pillars is also looking for mentors in Auckland and Christchurch. This is a hugely rewarding way to contribute to a young persons life and give back to the community.

If you would like further information on the Pillars programme, please visit their website.

Jim Haines, Director DCNZ

The importance of feeling part of a bigger team

With all of our staff located in different parts of the country, we are always trying to make them feel part of a larger team. To this end we arrange training days for specific staff either virtually or in person. 

In March all of our Clinical Managers came to Christchurch to meet for our development days. This was an opportunity to get to know each other a little better, to share experiences and update their knowledge and skills in specific clinical areas. We had sessions from invited external speakers, and also the Clinical Managers themselves. This group are the leaders in each of our facilities and the knowledge and experiences they both bring and take away from these development days are extremely valuable. 

Another group of staff that we bring together, albeit virtually, are the Diversional Therapists and activities staff from each facility. Every month we hold a meeting for these staff, which is a time to share what activities have occurred at each facility and discuss their plans for the coming month. It is a great forum for sharing ideas, particularly activities that have worked well. Throughout the year we have special occasions; resident birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Anzac Day, Waitangi Day for example. At our meetings, we are able to share and plan for these occasions. 

Simon Hamley, National Mental Health Nurse/ Training Coordinator

Magic moment from our home

One of our residents doesn’t usually want to engage in organised activities; she finds them a bit silly. Today, however, she saw me holding a box and she was curious what was inside. I told her that inside the box is a snakes and ladders game and asked if she'd like to play with me. She answered that she doesn’t know how to play, so I offered to teach her. We opened the box and when she saw the game, she suddenly remembered that she does know how to play! While we were playing she thought of her children. She told me that she always falls down the the snakes, while they always go up the ladders! She was laughing as she reminisced.