FRIDAY 4 MARCH - Stories at Helping Hand Aged Care

Friday was my day for visiting my friends at Helping Hand Aged Care in North Adelaide. As with my other visits my hosts were very generous with their time and gave me a thorough briefing on their services as well as a comprehensive tour of their North Adelaide aged care facility.


Helping Hand Aged Care CEO Ian Hardy has been to visit Somerset Care in the past and in 2008/9 we arranged a staff exchange between our two organisations. I had heard such great stories from our manager Helen Rex about her visit to Adelaide and it was a real pleasure to be able to visit myself and hopefully help to strengthen our friendship further.

Following a presentation of the breadth and scope of Helping Hand's operations by Megan Corlis, Director of Research and Development, I heard from Fiona Dunt, Project Officer - Telling My Story, about the project that has been undertaken on digital storytelling with Helping Hand residents. This collaborative venture is supported by the Adelaide Media Resource Centre. The project links residents with Adelaide based film makers who give their time and skills to assist in the creation of the life stories.

While touring the facility it was a pleasure to meet and talk with a number of residents and I was invited to visit one of the two room apartments to see the high quality residential accommodation offered at the site. My thanks to Susan Emerson, Director Care Environments & Service Strategy for showing me round the care facility.





While enjoying lunch with the Helping Hand executive team we were also joined by Allan Quire the Acting Assistant Secretary at the South Australia Office of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. We were able to share thinking on regulation and aged care funding. The Australian Government has recently commissioned a full policy review of this area by the Productivity Commission and the report is currently out for public consultation. If the recommendations of the commission are passed into law they could represent a radical reform of the Australian funding and policy system for the elderly.

In the afternoon I went with Ian and Megan to visit the Media Resource Centre in the Creative Arts Complex in central Adelaide where I met with Director Gail Kovatseff and was able to explore further the development of storytelling as a creative art form that has special relevance in aged care along with all other forms of artistic expression and activity.

Location:Adelaide