By Kath Gannaway
CLOSURE of the town’s aged-care facility is just one blow too many for Warburton, according to a group formed last week to keep the facility open.
As reported in the Mail (9 August) AdventCare which runs the facility announced on 3 August they were closing the facility, saying it was not viable.
The Save Warburton Aged-Care Group (SWAG) was formed the next day (4 August) with more than 60 people representing residents, families and local businesses stepping up to fight the closure, calling on AdventCare to hold closure until March 2017, and on the Federal Government to maintain funding and fund a full study into the economic impact on the community.
SWAG chairperson Peta Godenzi said they were intent on keeping the facility open for the benefit and well-being of the residents, their families and the Warburton and district communities.
A rally on Thursday, 11 August demonstrated the growing concern and support for the Warburton Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which is also fighting the closure, the 30 or so residents, and staff.
Community members from schoolchildren and businesspeople to family members and staff joined with the aged-care residents who face losing their home.
Ms Godenzi said the announcement had come as a huge shock to the community.
Addressing recent Federal Government funding cuts, cited by AdventCare as a deciding factor in their decision, Ms Godenzi said the community knew nothing of the cuts and the potential impact it would have so close to home.
She said the impact on local commerce would be huge with businesses including the pharmacy, supermarket, butcher, hairdresser, doctors, cafes and others having served the aged-care, its residents and staff for many years.
Calling on Federal Member Tony Smith for assistance, Ms Godenzi said a one-size-fits-all approach to funding cuts was not on.
“Factors such as our rural community’s low socio-economic rating with high unemployment should be taken into consideration, as should the costs that will be incurred by forcing another 50 people out of work,” she said.
She said residents and their families were devastated, with some facing having to relocate their entire family to remain close to their loved-ones in aged-care.
She said the facility was more than just bricks and mortar to many of the residents.
“There are some residents who actually laid the bricks for this facility when they were younger, planning ahead, with the belief that they would live out their days in the community in which they lived and worked.
“Now there is a distinct possibility that they will be transferred from a facility they built, as a result of the Federal Government cuts.
“These valued, and now vulnerable, members of the community are very frightened,” Ms Godenzi said.
Joy Milk, 95, is one of them. Mrs Milk said she was fearful of losing the independence she had at AdventCare Yarra Ranges.
“I walk every day into the town, and I know everybody down there. It keeps me going,” she told the Mail.
She said she would not feel confident to do that in a strange place.
David Bakker, 86, moved from the independent units also built by the Warburton SDA Church, to the aged-care just last year.
He moved to Warburton to work at the SDA-owned Signs Publishing and contributed money and practical help to build the facility.
“I was happy to give,” he said. “We (the Warburton SDA Church) were determined to have a place here for our people.”
AdventCare CEO, David Reece, said while AdventCare applauded the staff and community initiative, the organisation just did not have the money to prop up the Warburton facility.
“When AdventCare Yarra Junction lost millions of dollars it basically drained their reserve,” he said.
“With accommodation bonds we have to keep a certain amount of moneys liquid. We meet all those requirements, but just not the extra capital of $2.5 million, and then another two years it will take to get developed, another $500,000 in losses.”
“You’re talking $3 million to give us the confidence that the situation could be different and we have told the group (SWAG) that that’s the target.”
Mr Reece said the message from AdventCare to the Warburton community is: “If you can genuinely help, we need to know now.”
In the meantime, the Warburton Adventist Church last week placed a public notice saying they were still in active discussion with AdventCare in the hope of keeping the facility open and urged AdventCare management to reconsider the closure.
The church urged community members to sign the petition raised by SWAG.
At government level, Ms Godenzi said SWAG is calling on Mr Smith and Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, to stand up and ensure rural communities don’t “bear the brunt of the aged-care cuts”.
“SWAG congratulates Nick Xenophon’s call for a senate inquiry into the aged-care cuts and looks forward to working with AdventCare Victoria to postpone the closure while this inquiry and a socio-economic study can be completed,” Ms Godenzi said.
