Archbishop of Canberra to open innovative approach to aged care living

Mercy Place Mount St Joseph’s residential aged care home residents and staff will be in celebration mode when their home is officially opened on Thursday.

The Most Reverend Christopher Prowse, Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, will officially open and bless the home, which has adopted an innovative approach to residential aged care living during its recent redevelopment.

This ‘household living approach’ has been successfully adopted across a number of Mercy Health residential aged care homes, and is one that has been received with overwhelming support from the Mercy Place Mount St Joseph’s residents who have moved into their new households.

The home features four households, each of which feature 15–17 single ensuite bedrooms, a kitchen, living and dining area. The household living approach supports residents to live as independently as possible, while encouraging them to maintain relationships with family, friends and community. Household living aims to address the major challenges of inactivity, loneliness, depression and loss of purpose that residents sometimes experience within residential aged care.

“Mercy Place Mount St Joseph’s household living redevelopment has been specifically designed and built to feel just like home,” Mercy Place Mount St Joseph’s Service Manager Shelley Gledhill says. ‘Residents are able to enjoy home-cooked meals and the privacy of real home spaces with the security and peace-of-mind of having expert and caring staff close by.”

Within Mercy Place Mount St Joseph’s, there are also a number of communal spaces where residents can gather, including the light-filled Laurie’s Lounge – a space named after Laurie Hewson, who worked at the home for more than 30 years. There is also a beautiful reflection room and the Mother Dot’s Diner, a café that is named in honour of local Mother Superior and former Mercy Place Mount St Joseph’s resident Mother Dorothy.

“Our residents are loving their new home,” Shelley says. “It really does combine that at-home feeling but with the support, care and ready-made community that comes with residential aged care living.”