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RAY and Bernice Tonkin are still living comfortably at home, but they say they are now at the age where they are considering their options in case they need to move into aged care.
But there are no options for them in Wedderburn, the place they have both spent most of their lives and currently call home.
It is an issue that has been felt by many in the small town of 680 people.
Peter McHugh’s parents also spent most of their lives in Wedderburn, with his father having been born and raised in the town.
But both have had to enter aged care at Ararat, an hour and a half away, because they were unable to be cared for at Inglewood – Mr McHugh’s father Doug, or Dodger as he is known, has dementia, and his mother Flo also requires a high level of care.
Mr McHugh said the facility was good and they were both doing well, but it was not an ideal situation.
Isolation from friends and their community has been flagged as a major concern for those who have to leave the town and their families, particularly as their friends may themselves be unable to drive.
“Other than family, they don’t really get anyone visiting them, because it’s too far,” Mr McHugh said.
“If they were here, they’d get people dropping in daily.”
Lions Club secretary Jude Raftis’ 93-year-old mother is a little closer to home at Inglewood, but that does not mean it was easy for her to move out of her home town, away from family and friends.
“It was very traumatic actually, and probably just as traumatic for me actually, because I’m an only child,” Mrs Raftis said.
She said her late father had refused to leave Wedderburn even when he was desperately ill, and ended up dying at home.
Mr McHugh said even though his father’s dementia meant he struggled to even recognise his family, his thoughts often turned to Wedderburn.
“They miss home,” he said.
“If you have any conversation with my father it’s about ‘How’s the farm?’ and ‘How’s the footy side?’
“He was born here, his roots are here.”
He said his mother had settled in well, but had a network of friends in Wedderburn.
His parents high needs mean it is also difficult for the family to bring them back for visits.
Mr and Mrs Tonkin also reiterated the importance of being close to friends.
“If we were old and couldn’t stay in our own home, we’d want to be somewhere we could stay with family and precious friends,” Mrs Tonkin said.
Campaign for aged care continues
A CAMPAIGN to establish an aged care facility in Wedderburn has been led by the local Lions Club.
Secretary Jude Raftis said Lions had allocated 20 per cent of all fundraising to the project and so far had raised more than $15,000.
Loddon Shire’s Wedderburn ward councillor Gavan Holt has thrown his support behind the campaign, saying community members ask him about this issue more than any other.
He said the council had set aside land to accommodate an aged care facility and would donate it when
Lions president Jon Chandler said a minimum of 30 beds would be needed to ensure a facility was viable.
Mrs Raftis said a feasibility study had found such a facility would generate about $1 million per year within the local economy.
But Mike Parker, the chief executive officer of Inglewood and Districts Health Service, which operated an aged care unit 20 minutes away at Inglewood, said the organisation had not considered extending its service to Wedderburn.
“The reason being is that aged care is such a competitive business now, there’s no way you could run another business in another town with the demand a town the size of Wedderburn would generate – it just wouldn’t be viable,” Mr Parker said.
He said the region was “very well-placed” for aged care beds and until recently, the Inglewood facility had six to seven vacancies stretching over several months that had caused it to run at a “significant loss”.
Mr Parker said primary healthcare and early intervention initiatives were proving to be successful in keeping people living healthily at home for longer, which was driving down the number of people seeking aged care beds.
But Mrs Raftis said beds not taken by locals in a Wedderburn facility would be able to accommodate overflow from other areas, citing a 2008 Productivity Commission report that said there would be a significant growth in demand on the aged care system.
A federal health department spokesperson said no Aged Care Approvals Round applications had been received from Wedderburn in the past five years and there were no residential aged care places allocated in the town.
Plea intensifies with ageing population
Like most rural areas across Australia, the population of the Wedderburn area is growing older.
A third of the population of Loddon Shire is aged 60 or over and the proportion of residents aged above 50 is higher than that of regional Victoria as a whole, while the percentage of younger residents aged 20 to 29 is significantly lower than that of wider regional Victoria.
This trend in the population is what particularly worries some in the town.
Lions Club secretary Jude Raftis said there were concerns the baby boomer generation would find themselves in “dire straits” with nowhere to go if they needed care.
Wedderburn is a bit of an anomaly in the area, with similar-sized and smaller towns such as Boort, Charlton, Wycheproof and Pyramid Hill boasting an aged care facility.
The Lions Club is trying to attract a service provider to the town and has been liaising with Elm Aged Living chief executive officer Ingrid Williams, but she was not available for comment.