Adie and Karl Haswell are feeling relaxed and safe in their retirement village under lockdown. Photo / Supplied
Adie and Karl Haswell are feeling relaxed and safe in their retirement village under lockdown. Photo / Supplied
Inside Summerset in the Orchard, in Hastings there's a "good family spirit". That's despite staff guarding the main village gates by day and locking them by night.
Residents Adie and Karl Haswell, who have lived at the retirement village for two years, say it's the best place to be ata time like this.
Adie, 77, said although the Covid-19 outbreak and level 4 lockdown was scary, she felt perfectly safe in the retirement village.
"I am glad I am in here at this time. There is a good family spirit here and we give full credit to management for that and it all filters down to staff. They are all absolutely amazing.
"They keep us informed with updates about the virus. We get newsletters and a daily puzzle sheet delivered to us every day which is a great bonus."
Village manager Allan den Boer said overall the morale among staff and residents was extremely high, "although I think some of our residents are starting to get cabin fever".
"We still have our full contingent of staff working, in fact working harder than ever. I guess in the current environment, we are all grateful to be working and contributing in such uncertain times."
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier is planning targeted inspections to assess how secure aged care facilities are responding to Covid-19, but den Boer says that will not include Summerset in the Orchard.
"I understand the Chief Ombudsman will be focusing mainly on secure aged care dementia facilities, which make up around 10 per cent of all aged care facilities across New Zealand.
Summerset in the Orchard, in Ada St, Hastings. Photo / Supplied
"This village doesn't have a Care Centre and is 100 per cent independent living residents, unlike our Napier and Havelock North villages, which include Care Centres, providing rest home and hospital levels of care on site. We are currently building a new Village at Te Awa which will include dementia facilities."
Summerset has launched a host of precautions to ensure the safety of staff and residents, including restricting to essential visitors only.
"We have also launched a new home grocery delivery service, which is direct to residents in our villages. This has proved popular, and residents are much less inclined to risk going out and we have had fewer relatives dropping groceries off at the gates too. It has worked well as a preventative measure to reduce the chance of infection coming into the village.
"We have also introduced greater levels of cleaning across all our villages as a key preventative measure. We are doing everything possible to ensure we keep our residents, their families and our staff safe."
Adie said she was keeping busy with jigsaws, reading and had started sewing again.
"The thing we miss the most, off course, is our family. We can't go and have a meal with them and they can't come to visit. We have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Hawke's Bay so, yes, we definitely miss them.
"Most people in here were busy with outside lives before this lockdown. I count myself lucky that I have my husband in my bubble. Lots of people are alone. We do chat with neighbours, keeping our distance course.
"When I had to venture out for blood tests I masked up and wore gloves. I was happy to return. Some of the residents go out for short walks and as we are rural there is a nice walk within the complex with lots of birds and rabbits.
"One thing that has made us all smile was our one-off Summerset Shout. We left our glasses at the letterbox and staff came and filled them up."
Some of the residents have started an exercise group on the road outside their homes, keeping their distance of course.
"When they have finished that they sit and have a coffee and a chat."
Den Boer said the lockdown had provided real challenges around how they did things.
"While it has been challenging from a management perspective, it has also been rewarding to see it all come together. We are looking forward to getting back to normal life again, whenever that will be.
"I personally can't wait to see our cafe and all our amenities being used again to their full potential. In the meantime we continue to focus on providing the best service we can to our residents."
