"Dedicated aged care staff"

As I am sure with everybody, the journey from needing assistance with care for my parents, who are now quite elderly, and then getting the fit correct was a minefield. My parents still live in their own home.

On parent has Parkinson's and other health issues, including a number of serious falls that landed them in hospital but from which they have bounced back (literally). My other parent is legally blind. So one helps the other.

My cancer diagnosis last year, fortunately, came after we found Hammond Care West Dapto. So much stress was taken from my situation and I knew my parents were in safe hands.

One parent receives personal care every day plus the housework is done weekly. They commenced an exercise group recently. Held at Hammond West Dapto, the sessions have a mix of gentle exercise, meeting and talking to new people, trivia, singing and a lot of eating cake. My parent is picked up and brought home for every session. They have has gone from being a person who could not feed themselves and having terrible hallucinations, to baking cream horns, mushroom tarts and other goodies. They have not baked for years.

My other parent is taken shopping. They participated in a one-day seminar on dementia and thrived with meeting and talking to people even though they couldn't see them.

My parents are taken to appointments and there is always somebody coming into their home to talk to so they are not isolated.

I feel it is time we applaud the dedicated staff who work in aged care. My parents say that all the Hammond staff love coming to their home, just as my parents love seeing them.