Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services

Having identified and researched service gaps in the state’s upper southeast, in February 2006, Resthaven embarked on a new collaborative partnership with Longridge Retirement Village at Naracoorte. The newly created ‘Resthaven Naracoorte Community Services’ operated at an office in the retirement complex on Pavy Drive. Services offered included in-home care and support and day/overnight centre-based respite for carers.

The Naracoorte office was officially opened on 3 October 2006 by the Federal Member for Barker, the Hon Patrick Secker. An afternoon tea was enjoyed by many representatives of local health services and hospitals, members of the Resthaven and Longridge Boards and senior staff, local councillors, representatives from the Department of Health and Ageing and the local Uniting Church.

After Resthaven received additional Government funding to expand home care services in the southeast, a second office opened in March 2008 at Millicent, in the space vacated by the Carers’ Respite Centre on Davenport Street.

Resthaven Naracoorte Community Services was renamed to reflect this expansion, to ‘Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services’. Naracoorte was the primary office, with Millicent a designated outreach office.

Celebrating Resthaven’s 75th anniversary, in March 2010 Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services attended the local ‘Southeast Field Days’ in Lucindale, with balloons, give aways and a range of information available.

The Resthaven display gave locals the opportunity to meet staff and ask questions about their options when considering home care services for themselves or a loved one.

On 20 May 2011, a new office in Naracoorte was officially opened, at 17 Gordon Street. The new, larger office was ideally situated nearer to the commercial and retail centre of the town. The upgrade was made possible by the funds from a very unexpected and generous bequest from the late Mr Ernest Rutt.

With the new office utilised for the provision of home-care services, Resthaven continued to operate a day/overnight centre-based respite services for carers in the former office accommodation at Pavy Drive.

On 16 April 2012, the $20m, state-of-the-art residential aged care home at Resthaven Mount Gambier opened to much delight of the local community. Around this time, with continued demand in the Limestone Coast for in-home support services, the opportunity was taken to create a second outreach office for Community Services using space within the new building.

In late 2013, the nature of the way services were offered changed with the introduction of ‘Consumer Directed Care’ or ‘CDC’. Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services offered this new approach to clients, which involved individually tailored services as specified by the older person, building on their existing individual circumstances, social networks and care supports.

Around this time, Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services also received extra funding to offer additional services, enabling more low-level home maintenance, support and care services.

In October 2016, as part of the ‘Every Generation Festival’, Resthaven sponsored the opening of Seniors Month, which included a high tea and display of vintage clothing and accessories. Older people in the Wattle Range Council, including Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services clients, put their best foot forward at a ‘Fashions through the ages’ event.

With ongoing successful open days at the Naracoorte office, staff at Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services came up with an innovative way to reach people in other locations across the southeast. So it was, that in March 2017, staff headed out on the road to host an open day at the Robe Public Library and Visitor Information Centre.

Identifying the potential for people from rural communities to miss out on vital information sessions, Arthritis SA and Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services joined forces to host an arthritis awareness session at the Naracoorte office in June 2018. 

Attended by Resthaven staff, experienced staff from Arthritis SA ran the education session, which focused on pain management, positive thinking, and medication use.

In February 2019, a new outreach office located in Mount Gambier at 15B James Street, was officially opened with a celebratory barbeque.

Although locals had already been supported with in-home services for many years through a small office based at the Resthaven Mount Gambier residential aged care home, this dedicated office space was required to meet increased demand. The new office gave the opportunity to support even more older people to live independently in their own homes.

With Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services now operating out of three offices, Resthaven embarked on a recruitment drive.

A career expo was held at the Lakes Resort in Mount Gambier in June 2019, with two sessions allowing for questions and information about full-time, part-time and casual positions available.

At an award ceremony held at the Millicent Civic and Arts Centre on 10 August 2019, Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services Coordinator, Fiona Thompson, was awarded the Millicent Business Community Association’s award for Employee of the Year. Fiona was nominated by the daughter of a local Resthaven client.

In September 2019, clients from Millicent and Mount Gambier boarded a bus for a highly anticipated trip across the border, to Casterton, Victoria, where they enjoyed a visit to the Casterton Railway Museum and local bakery.

High-quality services continued uninterrupted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — just with extra physical distancing and infection control measures in place. However, the pandemic unfortunately derailed many of Resthaven’s intended 85th anniversary celebration events.

With the original afternoon tea event postponed, Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services managed to celebrate the occasion with an open day in October 2020 at the overnight respite cottage at Pavy Drive, Naracoorte (adhering to all COVID-19 requirements, of course!)

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Despite the global pandemic throwing the aged care sector – and the world – into chaos, demand continued to increase for home care services. In June 2021, to accommodate growth in the Limestone Coast, a new office was leased at 11 George Street, Millicent.

In September 2021, the Limestone Coast Local Health Network, Regional Development Australia Limestone Coast, City of Mount Gambier, Study Adelaide and UniSA invited Resthaven to meet 47 international students who were undertaking their studies in health and interested in gaining employment in the Limestone Coast.

The students visited many towns across the southeast over a three-day bus tour, including Naracoorte, Millicent and Mount Gambier.

In March 2024, Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services’ Mount Gambier office relocated to a new, larger office space at 13 Penola Road, Mount Gambier.

Whilst the office at 15B James Street served Resthaven well, with service demand increasing, staff required more space from which to facilitate high-quality support services for older people and their carers.

An official opening was held in April 2024, where it was also announced that the Mount Gambier office would become the primary office for all Resthaven Limestone Coast Community Services operations, with Naracoorte (the former primary office) and Millicent to serve as outreach offices.