"Gold standard of nursing care at Killara Extension"

My partner has been a patient in Killara Extension twice now after being admitted from a residential aged care for aggressive behaviours requiring physical and medication assessment.

I cannot fault the nursing staff who have cared for my partner. They have dementia and their behaviours are complex requiring constant supervision and assistance with all activities of daily living.

All of the nursing staff are extremely competent and compassionate but I want to particularly commend CNC Elizabeth, RN Michelle (the patient whisperer) and AIN Shanti for their patience and willingness to listen to me and to answer any concerns that I had.

I also want to commend Gloria who has the task of cleaning, for her friendly manner in engaging with the patients and their carers. Her ability to encompass the suffering of others while performing her duties was a god-send when I was feeling desperately sad at witnessing my partner's suffering.

The model of care demonstrated at Killara Extension should be 'the gold standard' in my opinion, for dementia care in a residential aged care setting, especially for dementia patients requiring consistent supervision for behaviours and medication effects, company and prompt and proper assistance with activities of daily living.

My experience has been that on the two occasions of being discharged back to the residential aged care setting, all the support and good that Killara Extension did was unable to be continued due to, I believe, not enough supervision or monitoring from not enough staff or adequately skilled staff.

It is a sad day when you wish that your partner could stay in a locked purpose built dementia hospital ward to get the constant emotional, physical and medical care that they require.

Well done Killara Extension - maybe one day your model of care will be adopted in the residential aged care setting.