Aged Care Employees Day 2023
“I’m so proud of how giving and kind our Twilight staff are. Their focus is always on ensuring our residents feel at home.” Neil Wendt, Twilight CEO.
On Monday August 7, 2023, Twilight Aged Care honoured and celebrated our staff teams. With a gift and a staff luncheon, we said #thanksforcaring to our fabulous staff members, from catering to care, from RN’s to FM’s, from cleaning and maintenance to recreational activity officers and gardeners. Without all of you, our frail aged and vulnerable residents would not receive the excellent care they deserve.
As well as celebrating our current staff, we said goodbye to John, from Hunters Hill Village, after eight years of wonderful service. Best wishes for the future, John!
“It is rare to be part of a team, who all radiate such a splendid commitment to care, compassion, integrity, and generosity of spirit.”
Leah Bisiani – MHlthSc/DipBus/RN1/Aged Care and Dementia Specialist.
Intergenerational Success with Montessori
The children from the Montessori School and their grand-friends enjoyed a Mad Hatters Tea Party; celebrating the end of their busy 6-month research project, focusing on the benefits of an Intergenerational Program.
For the party, the Children’s House of Montessori and the staff dressed up with crazy hats and socks. And the children played games and held performances for the residents.
The project was based off international studies showing the benefits of multigenerational activities and paired this with Montessori principles. The program saw many positive improvements since it began in April, including a reduction in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and social isolation.
The research component of the intergenerational program is now complete. But the strong connection formed between the children and their grand-friends has resulted in the program being extended for the near future.
Twilight Providing Jamieson House to Women’s Shelter
Twilight Aged Care is participating in a local initiative to temporarily repurpose Jamieson House Twilight as a home for displaced women over 55.
The Beecroft House: Housing Partnership Project will provide financial and residential support to the homeless, and give 20 women housing accommodation for the next 2 years. The project will convert Jamieson into a safe and welcoming space and give the building a new name, ‘Beecroft House’. The initiative aims to enhance the lives of these women and give them independence through housing pathways and support services.
The Beecroft House: Housing Partnership Project is the collaboration of the Hornsby council and over 6 organisations in North Sydney area, including the Women’s Shelter, Twilight Aged Care and Link Housing. The majority of these companies, including Twilight, are offering services to the Women’s Shelter project free of charge, including the lease for the building itself.
Twilight Aged Care contacted the Hornsby Ku Ring-Gai Women’s Shelter and offered two year access to the building rent free. Neil Wendt, the CEO of Twilight, said
“Twilight was founded 100 years ago to support women that required assistance. This wonderful initiative goes to the roots of the company’s values”.
This spirit of charity is shared by organisations like The Generous and the Grateful, who have donated the furniture for the building. The organisation works alongside 5 star hotels undergoing refurbishment, and saved any ‘outdated’ furniture for the women’s shelter. The National Projects and Maintenance group, are also providing their services and 40 workers to renovate Beecroft House for free.
Maraget Maljkovic, Chief Operating Officer at Link Housing, spoke about the great need for affordable housing at Beecroft House‘s community information afternoon. Maljkovic said the housing partnership is especially important for older women in the Sydney area where living prices are high. In this way, Beecroft House will provide opportunities for women to get back on their feet in times of financial or personal crisis.
The project aims to work closely with local people and businesses. The Women’s Community Shelter has set up a Facebook page for people to see the construction progress. The page offers opportunities for the community to help out the home with activities such as gardening, painting and cleaning.
Beecroft House is hosting an Open Day on Friday 9th August with free tours of the home, to mark the beginning of the project for interested members of the community. For more information, click here.
Re-uniting the community in intergenerational project
A six month local research project started in Glades Bay Gardens last Thursday. It aimed to connect the wisest and youngest generations of North Sydney.
The program involved The Children’s House of Montessori in East Ryde and residents of Twilight Aged Care. The initiative was designed to bridge the social gap between the old and young.
Intergenerational programs bring diverse groups together and unite communities by building relationships and sharing knowledge. This specific project focuses on the benefits of an Intergenerational program using Montessori principles within an aged care setting. It pairs up seniors and children for creative activities to open conversation and learn new skills together.
Denise Underwood, the principal of The Children’s House of Montessori, said that the program gives the children experience outside of an excursion format and allows them to genuinely interact with the community.
A report from Generations United described the far-reaching benefits of these programs in their studies in America. Their research showed how engagement of the children and seniors benefits communities as a whole.
Intergenerational Programs are able to unite diverse groups of people and build social understanding. They provide role models and positive interactions while breaking down negative, generational stereotypes.
The children visiting delighted everyone living at Twilight. They loved the energy that they brought to the day. Dorothy, a resident at Glades Bay Gardens, said that the children were “absolutely wonderful”.
Interacting with children encourages those older to be more active and cognitively alert; improving heart rate and mental health.
Julianne Walker, the volunteer and project coordinator behind the enterprise, was excited about the project. She said that the program has just began, but response from the children and those at Twilight are overwhelmingly positive. The program has 1-2 hours of group interaction per week with a different theme, until its conclusion in mid-September. She looks forward to seeing how the program and relationships will evolve in the coming months.
4 Women, 61 Years of Service
We were very happy to see so many members of our Hunters Hill Village team be awarded their 10 years of service badge!
Combined, these amazing women have given a life-time of care- 61 years:
- Yvette Fonseca (Cook, 12 years at Twilight)
- Elizabeth Sikimeti (PCA, 11 years at Twilight)
- Iwona Taborek (PCA, 20 years at Twilight)
- Chandrika Herath (Cook/RAO, 18 years at Twilight)
The 10 year service badge is a new initiative of the Twilight Aged Care Board. They wanted to acknowledge the exceptional work of those who has been with Twilight for over a decade.
This is an incredible achievement, and we want to thank all of them for their decade(s!) of compassion!
Christmas at Horton House
Christmas came early this year at Horton House Residential Aged Care Facility as families and guests came together for a festive celebration!
The residents and guests savoured a glass of wine (or bubbly) and an extensive variety of finger foods. With the home cooking up pastries, sandwiches, fruit platters, Christmas coconut balls and fruit mince pies.
Residents like Annette, noted the ‘festive atmosphere’ of the day, “everyone’s happy and very lovely”, she said.
Fiona, thanked all the staff and volunteers for their effort they put into the day, by assisting in preparation for the meals, catering to those attending and assisting the residents prepare for the party. Their efforts in going ‘above and beyond’ helped make the Christmas a merry one for everyone.
For Fiona, the season is about bringing people and families together and “enjoying each other’s’ company”.
The event meant that for some couples like Max and his wife, Ruth, who lives at Horton House, could celebrate Christmas with the Horton ‘family’. The couple has known each other since they were fourteen and Max still visits his wife every day. Christmas celebrations are an important part of their lives.
The Christmas celebration has been a long-time tradition of Twilight aged care, to bring people together during this special time of year.
Christmas at Glades Bay Gardens
A Christmas feast and community cheer at Glades Bay Residential Aged Care Facility!
The food outshone Santa this Christmas at Gladesville!
This is to be expected, as the residential village is known for its Christmas feasts and outstanding cuisines. Head cook, Ramina Shiekhali, had been preparing this jolly feast since 4 o’clock in the morning and the results were spectacular.
Towers of chocolate covered strawberries. Rice bubbles shaped into Christmas trees. Mango and avocado salad. Soy chicken drum sticks. Trifles and so much more.
The great food was no surprise to those living at Gladesville however, as resident Helen Spurrs told her daughter, Rebecca Knight, “The food is just always lovely”.
Twilight’s annual Christmas party provides opportunity for families like Helen’s to come together for the holidays.
But other residents use the Christmas lunch as an opportunity to show off some talent. Liz Matthews, a resident of Gladesville for the past four years, makes an annual performance from anything from poetry to singing and brought a rendition of Jingle Bells to the party.
Gladesville Public School wrote up Christmas messages for staff and volunteers to hand out to the residents. And community groups had contributed gifts for Twilight’s residents as well.
However, it wasn’t just the residents receiving presents, but the staff as well. Families of the residents came in and delivered gift baskets and homemade goods.
One of the parcels included fidget cushions made by one of the residents daughters for residents with dementia to engage in tactile stimulation.
The Christmas lunch has been a long-time tradition of Twilight aged care, to bring people together during the holiday. It is held annually in Gladesville Residential Aged Care Facility as well as throughout all of their four homes in the northern Sydney area.
Christmas at Glengarry
Presents from Santa, school kids and a diamond anniversary have made Christmas merrier at Glengarry Village Residential Aged Care.
Dozens of families and friends came together in celebration of Glengarry’s annual Christmas lunch on Thursday the 31th December. All the residents were in their best clothes, wearing paper crowns and breaking Christmas crackers. There was delicious food, a live performance from singer Leyla Nassif and chatter all around.
Jinky Mactal, the recreational activities officer, was the life of the party and had been sitting up and planning since 2 o’clock that morning. She had gone ‘all out’ for the Christmas lunch, and was constantly grabbing more chairs for the increasing number of resident’s guests.
It was well worth the effort according to Jinky, “To get everyone together” she said, “That is the one thing that matters to me”.
Jack and Jill Kindergarten had visited earlier in the day to sing Christmas carols to the residents. The children had been coming weekly to the home to visit those at the home as part of an Intergenerational Program that Glengarry has. The lunch was also special for another reason, it was the 60th wedding anniversary of resident David Wilcken and his wife Bridget. They were given a bunch of orchids by Twilight’s facility manager Margaret Smithson in celebration of their diamond anniversary.
However, they were not the only ones to get presents this Christmas, as local community groups and even the families had donated gifts for the residents. Santa came around with labelled and wrapped gifts for all the residents, with surprises from slippers to novels.
Everyone fell in love with Frankie, the soft hearted giant from Delta Therapy Dog Volunteers that put on antlers and served as Santa’s reindeer. And at the end of the day Frankie was also given a gift from Santa- a juicy bone.
Residents of the memory support wing, ‘Eloura’ had a quiet in the courtyard to enjoy their own Christmas festivities. Student nurses and volunteers catered their lunch with soft music for a relaxing time for the residents.
The food fit the season perfectly with classics like shaved ham and beef with gravy, roast vegetables and peas. Desert was also very popular with residents and families alike with homemade mince pies, fruit cakes and pastries.Jinky and Margaret thanked guests and staff for making the day special for the residents at the end of the lunch. The Christmas lunch has been a long-time tradition of Twilight aged care, to bring people together during the holiday. It is held annually in Glengarry Residential Aged Care Facility as well as throughout all of their four homes in the northern Sydney area.