For over 20 years Joan has enjoyed living in her idyllic Melbourne apartment, overlooking the city skyline and surrounding green spaces. In recent years, Joan has experienced changes to her health and memory that started to impact on her daily living. Without regular assistance, she began having difficulty remembering to take her daily medication. Then in 2019, Joan had a severe fall, rupturing the tendons in her arm, and subsequently spent some time in hospital.
When Joan was ready to leave hospital, the discharge planners recommended she spend some time recuperating in a nursing home where she would receive regular care to aid a quicker recovery. Joan agreed and after just a few months in the care facility, she began to feel stripped of her freedom and missed the comforts of being in her own home.
Joan, with her sons’ assistance arranged for her to return to her apartment under the provision that her care needs could be fulfilled at home.
Through the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Community Nursing services, Joan now receives daily visits from a nurse to help her with her medication regimen. Although not always in agreeance with the fuss the nurses make over her during the visits, Joan says she enjoys the social time, and will often have a pot of tea and a tray of biscuits ready for their arrival.
When speaking with Joan’s son David, on the assistance from DVA and Programmed Care, he says “the falls that mum used to have, they’ve all stopped because the nurses give the regular medication. It’s one of the great benefits of this service. Mum has not had a fall since the nurses have been coming here to provide the medication every morning.”
With Victoria returning to stage 3 COVID-19 restrictions, Joan and David are happy and comfortable with the level of care and empathy they receive from Programmed Care. Since COVID began to have an impact on our communities, Joan has continued to see the same high level of standard in her services.
As an added precaution, Programmed have introduced ‘COVID calls’, an extra safety measure, whereby the visiting nurse or support worker phones their clients 30 minutes ahead of each scheduled visit to ensure they are feeling ok and have not been in contact with a suspected or known case of COVID-19.
Once restrictions are eased, Joan is most looking forward to holding her 4-month old great grandchild and getting away for a weekend to RACV Club in Torquay.
If you or a loved one is in need of care, contact the Programmed Care team today on:
Tel: 13 10 95
Or visit programmed.com.au/care
