Village managers are being increasingly called on to support residents, with operators reporting that low rates of socialisation and contact with family and friends are leading to a rise in the number of cases of dementia in villages as well as in residents needing to enter residential care post-lockdown.
“We have certainly seen that in our villages, that after each significant lockdown, we do get a significant spike in departures, whether that’s to aged care or deaths,” said Centennial Living CEO Derek McMillan.
“It’s one of the hidden costs of the pandemic.”
John Leo, director of Mbark which has two villages in NSW and a third planned for Canberra, says that despite seeing a generally high satisfaction among residents during COVID-19, residents are now becoming frustrated.
“We can see that it’s almost a residual PTSD,” he said. “They have a lot of anger and dislocation. We need to start socialising again and help people to go out.”
Adding to the day-to-day challenges are the restrictions that are still in place across many States and Territories.
Derek estimates that in Victoria, there have now been 68 separate rule updates which each require operators to review their policies and procedures.
“For our residents to be allowed in the community centre, they have to be double-vaxxed, or single-vaxxed. They have to wear a mask and all of those rules have to be reviewed each time.”
Operators and managers are reporting that the mood is starting to lift with the Omicron wave past its peak – and say their focus is now on bringing back their villages to life.
“It’s about taking the villages back to what they were, which is great places to live,” summed up Derek. “A lot of the residents have been impacted by the lockdown, even those that are still living there and survived, so they are still gun shy about community activities and so forth.”
