Saturday, 7 August 2021 is Aged Care Employee Day. To acknowledge and thank our vital aged care workers, healthy@home is profiling some of the valued staff employed by the service providers in our consortium.
Fun and friendship is the name of the game for Vicki Burden, who is acutely aware of the changing times and tastes of those fortunate enough to join her grand adventures. Having worked in the aged care sector since the early 1990s, and now aged in her 60s herself, Vicki has real empathy for her clients – if she doesn’t find it fun then they probably won’t either.
The result is a program that gives her clients, who all live independently at home, the sense that they are taking a holiday every week.
Before joining Jubilee Community Care as its Activities Officer almost a decade ago, Vicki worked as a club coordinator responsible for planning and leading holiday tours and getaway weekends for seniors.
Using this experience, she comes up with day trips and outings to interesting and exciting destinations – and she makes sure there’s always a dining experience on the menu as well.
This has a secondary purpose – those who are alone and might have just a cup of soup for dinner if they bother with anything at all, who eat Meals on Wheels or frozen dinners, are enjoying a delicious and nutritious meal with friends at least once a week.
“Being alone, they don’t enjoy the pleasure and companionship of a good meal but on our outings, they always clean up their plates and go away totally satisfied,” Vicki says. “They are getting their vegetables and salads and puddings.”
Wide variety of activities
A few years ago, it was decided to name the activity group and suggestions were invited. The most popular was Jubilee Wanderers and it has stuck.
“The Jubilee Wanderers wander everywhere,” Vicki says. “They are picked up from home and dropped off so they don’t have to worry about getting to a meeting point. They are amazing people, most of them in their 80s and 90s, who love to go out and have a glass of wine, and have fun and conversation. They are getting out and feeling connected.”
Outings are on Mondays and Wednesdays. They might head off to see camels being milked, sheep cheese being made, a concert at St John’s Cathedral, lunch at a golf club or simply fish and chips on the waterfront.
Vicki is constantly coming up with exciting new ideas for her Wanderers.
“I’m regularly Googling cafes and restaurants, as I like to give them culinary delights in their day and people who grew up on meat and three veg can try different foods,” she says.
“They really love the Greek Club and its grazing platters where they can sit around and chat in good company while enjoying the food.”
And to ensure the men are included she dreams up “blokey” trips as well, such as tours of the Port of Brisbane, Boggo Road Gaol and the Zero Waste facility at Rochedale – tours that are both interesting and educational.
As well as asking herself what she would like to do, she asks her clients where they would like to go next.
“They always give me ideas,” she says. “I just ask for their suggestions and then make it happen. Nothing is too hard.”
As well as the twice-weekly outings, Vicki also oversees exercise classes via Zoom on Tuesday and Friday, and Wednesday is “chitchat” day, when they get together on Zoom to solve the problems of the world.
Their stories are to be compiled into a coffee table book. She has also organised courses in nutrition, mindfulness, and creative writing.
Addressing social isolation for seniors
It’s part of her mission to address social isolation for seniors, even during the pandemic and she jokes that many of her clients are now more adept at Zoom than she is.
Vicki is emphatic that her clients are not to be patronised and treated like children.
“There’s definitely no bingo,” she says. “We have had craft days making Christmas cards, but these are people who have lived amazing lives so we focus on playing trivia and mind games and having interesting guest speakers.
“They have their own clubs if they want to play mah-jong, so we take them out and show them life.”
Vicki loves her job and says she has always loved working with seniors, as they all have a story to tell and are such interesting people.
“We have an ageing population and if can spread a bit of cheer, that’s my mission. I want to bring happiness and if I can go to bed knowing I have put a smile on their face, my day is complete,” she says.
MAIN PHOTO: Jubilee Community Care’s Activities Officer Vicki Burden (photo supplied).