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🇦🇺 Australia /Health & Science

Kilkivan plan seeks funding to keep older residents close to family

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources New plan
  • A community group in Kilkivan, Queensland, is seeking funding to build a five-bedroom home for older residents who need more support but do not want to leave the district.
  • The proposal would offer an alternative between living alone at home and moving to an aged-care facility far from family and local connections.
  • National Seniors Association founder Everald Compton and a University of the Sunshine Coast researcher have backed the community-based model.

John Devereux has no intention of leaving Kilkivan, where he and his wife, Mary, have lived for 43 years. At his 90th birthday celebration in the town’s small church hall, he said leaving would mean losing the family, contacts and surroundings they had known for decades.

I would hate to leave.

· John DevereuxThe 90-year-old Kilkivan resident described his attachment to the town.

That attachment to place sits at the heart of a proposal by the Kilkivan and District Community Care Association. The group already runs a community hub, in-home care and transport services. Its president, Rosie Fitzgerald, now wants to build interim accommodation for older residents moving off large properties who are not yet ready for a conventional aged-care facility.

Fitzgerald said older property owners currently faced two stark choices: living independently, often alone and with limited support hours, or leaving the district for an aged-care facility elsewhere. Her plan would create a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home on vacant land next to the community hub. Gympie Regional Council has designated the site for aged care, and the rooms would be rented to provide flexibility.

We would lose all our contacts, lose our family, lose everything we know and have loved for the last 40 years.

· John DevereuxDevereux explained why he and his wife want to remain in Kilkivan.

“So what has come out of this community is a grassroots concept … just to allow them to stay longer in their home territory,” Fitzgerald said. She believes a pilot project could demonstrate savings for government while allowing residents to remain near their communities.

So what has come out of this community is a grassroots concept … just to allow them to stay longer in their home territory.

· Rosie FitzgeraldThe community care association president described the purpose of the proposed accommodation.

The proposal has attracted attention from National Seniors Association founder Everald Compton, who travelled from Brisbane to attend the celebrations. He said the model could be repeated in towns across Australia, where older residents often have to move to larger centres when they become frail. Sophie Andrews, a neurocognition lead at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Healthy Brain Ageing Research Program, has also followed the project and said ageing in place was optimal socially, medically and economically.

Rosie has started a model which I believe can be repeated all over Australia in communities the size of Kilkivan.

· Everald ComptonThe National Seniors Association founder endorsed the local proposal.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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