Mid-Winter Gathering

Thursday the 31st of July at 2pm

We would love you to join us!

It doesn’t seem long at all, but more than half the year has passed, and winter has well and truly set in. We have changed over to our winter menu. A copy of this has been posted in each of our kitchenettes, if you wish to take a look. Our residents are enjoying the change and are keeping warm with hearty meals and stews.

Our year so far has been a wonderful blend of happy hours, arts and crafts, and homely household tasks. Listening to music has also been popular. The sound of classical music played on the radio is a common occurrence in our home, as well as our Saturday morning musical entertainment by our lovely pianist. The Whakaahuru singing group has been such an enduring presence in our home. They bring so much happiness when they come once a month to sing classical songs for us.

Over the past few months, we have had so many reasons to celebrate with St. Patrick’s Day, Waitangi Day, Easter, Anzac Day, and Mother’s Day. These days were celebrated with craft activities, reminiscing, and telling and listening to stories.

Our annual flu vaccinations have been completed. All the residents were offered the opportunity to be immunised. Our staff team was also encouraged to take advantage of our free vaccination service. This is an important step in keeping our staff team healthy and helping us to navigate the winter season.

In staffing news, we are happy to announce that Anina has become a Registered Nurse in our home. Prior to this she worked as a Caregiver for us. It is great to see Anina progressing in her career. We welcome Jay-ar Pesigan as our new home assistant. We were sad to say goodbye to Varghese and Christy.

It might also be helpful to know that our GP, Dr. Joanna White is currently on maternity leave. Our residents are now being looked after by Dr. Kim Baker and Dr. Andrea Crichton who are dedicated to resident care.

Many thanks to those who joined the Family Focus Group in April which was conducted by Peter Hume. We value your feedback, so we warmly encourage you to pop in and share ideas or concerns with us anytime.

To keep our home nice, we always work closely with our directors and with our handy man, Rodel. Rodel helps us to maintain the gardens at our facility, which can be a challenge at this time of year.

Our annual Mid-Winter Family Gathering is scheduled for Thursday the 31^st of July from 2pm. We look forward to seeing you all on that day, and spending time with you and your loved ones.

Lastly, we hope that you are keeping warm. It is always a pleasure to have you as part of our Millvale Miramar family, and we would like to thank you for your continuing support and trust.

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 this happening.

Andrew Sheard, Managing Director

Rhea takes on role as National Operational Support Leader

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 Miramar. The focus group attendees were positive about the care provided at Millvale. One family member said that said that they really appreciate the care staff give, commenting that staff seem to enjoy what they do and it shows. They also said they appreciated the acknowledgement of them, as family members, as being part of the home; that staff call them by name and always make a cup of tea.

There were also various issues raised which we are following up:

• Access to outside doors at night-time.
• Potential usefulness of cameras to monitor resident movements.
• Width of paths in the garden.
• Flies and pigeons in the home particularly over the summer months.

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 Moment from Millvale House Miramar

During a pampering session, I trimmed and then painted the nails of one of our residents. Once I'd finished she smiled at me, looking pleased. “My nails haven’t been done for ages! Thank you so much for doing that!” she exclaimed. Seeing her joy was a heartwarming experience.