Placing residents’ wellbeing and quality of life at the forefront of every development decision, Renishaw Hills has partnered with leading healthcare provider, MyCare Provider (Pty) Ltd, to introduce a home-based care system at its mature lifestyle village on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.
“The worldwide trend is seeing a move away from the traditional frailcare centre, which requires people to relocate from the comfort of their homes, to the more people-centric system of home-based care,” explained Phillip Barker, managing director of Renishaw Property Developments, a subsidiary of the Crookes Brothers group. “Renishaw is very excited to be partnering with MyCare, an organisation which provides a comprehensive, quality healthcare service that places the individual’s needs first.”
Suzette du Preez, a CEO of MyCare with an extensive background in nursing, said she had chosen to enter the private healthcare arena to focus on the provision of home-based care.
“I had been working at a top retirement estate in Gauteng and I felt that frailcare centres were not affording residents the quality of life they could experience in their own homes,” said Du Preez, who went on to establish TruCare, an organisation which owns MyCare jointly with Carmelcare. “By the later stages in life, a person has experienced significant loss – be it family members, beloved pets or even personal possessions as they’ve had to downsize. This makes the home environment that much more important and remaining in that space has significant psychological benefits.”
Du Preez explained that, although many approaching retirement age prioritise the existence of a frailcare centre for any future home investment, they must fully assess what care services are actually provided on the estate.
“Often there is a misunderstanding about the services offered by a frailcare centre,” explained Du Preez, “There might be no intensive nursing care which means that, if a resident gets sick, they will have to be transported to a hospital, rather than being treated onsite.”
She went on to say that, when people are required to actually analyse their future options, they often discover that a frailcare centre wouldn’t be their first choice.
“When you ask people why they want a frailcare centre, they respond that they want a facility ‘in case’ they ever need it, but if you pursue whether they actually want to go to a frailcare centre, they’re vehemently against it! It creates this false sense of future security when, in reality, home-based care is a much more encouraging option associated with numerous benefits.”
Home-based care offers a multi-disciplinary team of specialists including a treating doctor, registered nurse, caregiver, physiotherapist and occupational therapist, all of whom are dedicated to the wellbeing of the individual. At Renishaw Hills, MyCare will undertake a soft entry of services onto the estate, providing the necessary support and care for the current residents with a registered nurse and primary healthcare clinic.
Eventually MyCare will facilitate services onsite permanently as occupancy increases, which will include a convalescence facility for residents needing post-operative, respite or rehabilitative care. The phasing in of this system prevents initial overstaffing as well as the unnecessary associated costs. The implementation of home-based care within mature lifestyle villages, such as Renishaw Hills, is also an increasingly affordable option because of the service availability levy worked into the estate living.
“Each resident will undergo a baseline assessment on arrival to allow the establishment of a Wellness Plan suited to the individual,” explained Du Preez. “This is a preventative healthcare measure to ensure optimum wellbeing and independence for every resident. Eventually a Care Plan may have to be created but, once again, every effort is made to ensure individual independence and wellness are maintained throughout.”
For more information about this exciting new development, visit www.renishawhills.co.za
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