My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 36

Serving to
Change
“I had originally intended for the hospice
residents to occupy level 2 of the Annex building
and the infants and children, the ground floor. But
this building might have to go later to make way for
new services and I didn’t want the hospice residents
to die lonely. So back to the main building they
came. They were supposed to be homed on the
second floor, but that gave way to the dementia
level as the staff felt the ground floor was too big a
space for them to wander about safely.” The building
process was a steep learning curve for many of the
staff who took the experience in their stride. have taken off quite well and are fulfilling their
respective purposes. “You don’t need an ‘A’ level cert
to do art therapy. You can be a hawker and can still
draw and connect. It’s about putting your feelings into
what you do,” says Sr Geraldine.
“What I also hope to see slowly changing is the
people who come into the home to interact with
our residents. I would like more younger people to
come in, talk to the residents, support them. It’s not
right for the old to look after the old. They should
play the role of mentor, tutors, trainers, not look
after someone their age.”
Homecoming Trials St Joseph’s Home a Model of Care
for Others?
The long wait came to an end on 18 February 2017.
The life that the team had envisioned for this and
subsequent cohorts of seniors could finally begin
even if on a pilot basis.
One of the new features of the home was
the family or cluster model concept of care. The
same group of care staff would look after the
same cluster of residents and be familiar with
their preferences and needs. Great in theory and
overall, great in practice except the part about
everyone having to take on another role apart
from their own. So nurses would double up as
therapy aides and vice versa. “But it was easier
for the nurses to do some of the work of therapy
aides. Not so the other way around as they
lack the professional know-how,” Sr Geraldine
observes. So it’s back to the drawing board for
further tweaking for now.
But other new services like music and art therapy
34 | St Joseph’s Home
“Can we be a light for others?” Sr Geraldine asks.
“I’m not so sure given our 3+3+3 year land lease. We
need to stay relevant to the times and respond to
the needs that arise. I asked them if we can shut
our hospice down when we moved to this new
place. They said ‘No because St Joseph’s started
it’. So what makes us different? What must we
continue to do to do right by our residents and
staff? This takes courage and perseverance and is
not something that can be guaranteed in future.
But we must try and the way to do this is to keep
telling the story of how the home came to be and
where it should be going. Ageing is not a burden, it
is golden.” StJ