Judy Mayfield, President of the Association of Residents of Queensland Retirement Villages (ARQRV) and Jim Gibbons, President of the NSW Retirement Village Residents Association (RVRA) participated in a panel.
Judy said their associations are getting a lot more complaints (in real numbers) and they are more complex.
Jim said he was inspired by the amount of work that has gone into the Code of Conduct but cautioned to make sure it filters down to the ‘workforce’ and then it is kept there.
Judy also said the Code of Conduct relies on the village managers – the work needs to be done at that level.
She also cautioned on the idea of ‘control’: “There is a lot of this. You can’t plant your garden this way. You have an older man being told you can’t maintain your house that way – it is very controlling”.
Jim asked operators to think about the residents and the new trend for ‘ageing in home’ too. “Village residents are increasingly becoming the first responders to an incident which is very stressful”.
