White Oak Home Care Services expands its community involvement by managing the Villa Dalmacia Day Centre in Spearwood. Supported by Hall & Prior, it provides culturally appropriate care for clients with Italian, Croatian, and Portuguese heritage, fostering a vibrant hub of culture and community.
Veterans Are in Safe Hands
When Jim’s wife Kathleen passed away suddenly, he was struck with overwhelming grief and uncertainty. He couldn’t see how he would be able to keep living at home without her and was worried about his future.
And he wasn’t just worried about himself; what would happen to Cookie the cat and Max the dog if he went into a nursing home? He was finding it very difficult to do everything on his own, as his wife Kathleen had been his carer and looked after their daily activities.
As a veteran with a gold card, Jim was eligible for the Veteran’s Home Care program. His GP acted quickly to get in-home care services started straight away through White Oak. And we started working with Jim immediately.
As the weeks went by his GP saw his confidence slowly return, and told us that Jim was feeling comfortable in his home on his own for the first time. We were happy to let his GP know how far he’d come from our first visit; Jim was making good progress.
As an insulin-dependent diabetic, Jim also needed to access the DVA Community Nursing program for twice-daily injections and began to worry about getting there. He was getting along okay each day, but realised he needed more and more assistance to continue to be involved in the community from his family. This type of support was not able to be covered by his DVA programs and he didn’t want to be a burden.
White Oak worked with his GP to help Jim access a level two home care package. This package meant that on top of the home and clinical care provided by the DVA, Jim would also be able to access support to keep him from feeling isolated and alone at home. It also meant that he had goals to work towards to ensure he was getting assistance with the activities that meant the most to him – and of course to Max and Cookie.
Jim set a goal to get strong enough to walk Max a few times a week. With the help of his support worker Susan they started walking to the park at the end of the street. There, she would continue to walk Max around the park while Jim caught his breath for the return trip home.
Kathleen had always been the one to walk Max, and Jim felt bad that Max wasn’t getting out as much as he could be. After several months, and with the encouragement of Susan, Jim was confident enough to walk with Max around the park with her. He still preferred to walk Max while Susan was with him in case he needed a rest, and he was worried about falling. But he felt great that he could help Max and had reached his milestone of being able to complete the entire walk.
Susan also helped Jim take Cookie to the vet one day. Jim sat with Cookie and kept her calm while Susan drove them there safely.
The home care package also meant that Jim could go to Church on Sundays and he started attending every week for the first time since Kathleen had passed away.
Two years later, Jim is safe and comfortable in his own home with Max and Cookie and is a lot more confident about their future together.
Jim feels they’re in safe hands with White Oak.
