Recruiting session: Warramunda Village director of clinical Services Sarah Gaunt (right) at the morning tea held to provide volunteers with information about a return to ‘COVID normal’’ operating conditions at the aged care facility. A new café-style facility in the gardens will offer a meeting place for volunteers, family and visitors.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a marked effect on freedoms and interactions in Australian society, with living conditions perhaps forever changed.
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At Warramunda Village, however, ‘’COVID normal’’ is becoming a term that the aged care facility’s management team, staff and residents are quite happy to hear.
It simply means that, albeit under tightly controlled conditions, Warramunda is back open for business.
That was signalled last week when chief executive John Clark, clinical services director Sarah Gaunt and education and training manager Mel Thomas hosted a group of volunteers at an initial induction session.
The session was in the form of a volunteers morning tea and was a welcome return to Warramunda Village reopening its doors to one element of the community that has played an important part in its history.
Volunteers have always been a significant part of the facility, which was built 60 years ago and has undergone several improvements.
Warramunda Village is more than an aged care complex, offering independent living and a residential facility in the heart of town on an expansive seven-hectare site.
It has always relied on community volunteers, working alongside the dedicated staff to care for elderly residents of Kyabram with respect, dignity and compassion.
Last week’s relaunch of the volunteer recruiting program attracted a double-figure attendance and signalled a return to significant community involvement in the operation of the facility.
Ms Gaunt said it was the first in what she hoped would be a series of volunteer recruiting mornings.
“Volunteers used to be very involved. They are important to the residents’ emotional wellbeing — many do not have visitors or family,” she said.
“Volunteers become important people in their lives.”
Levels of community volunteers, due to the changed conditions of operation at the facility, have fallen over time.
Warramunda is planning to address the decline, the management team explaining that there was not a huge amount of training.
"There is no cap on volunteers. We would love people to put their hand up to be involved with Warramunda,“ Ms Gaunt said.
Warramunda has always been a community-minded organisation, recently having started an inter-generational program with pre-kinder children and having school visits, including from a choir.
At last week’s session there were some old and several new volunteers, listening intently to the trio who are focused on operating amid a “COVID normal’’ environment.
“This is a good start. We will be using events to promote the program further, including an invitation to the broader community to the Warramunda fete (on November 24),” Ms Gaunt said.
She said the Kyabram-based dementia support group would also be involved in a volunteer capacity and a new “café style’’ space (for family, volunteers and visitors) was in development.
Warramunda recently had 200 people at its Christmas in July event and there is a commitment to ensuring a continuing calendar of events for the residents and their families, while also including the community in the programs.
Warramunda is also advertising for a community advisory committee to further expand its connection to the community.
Volunteer morning: Jim Miller, Warramunda Village chief executive John Clark and Alan Curnow at The Hub for the volunteer information session and morning tea.
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