2010

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In 2010, Resthaven’s 75th anniversary was celebrated with events at residential and community services sites.

To mark the milestone, the Resthaven Board reached out to the community to offer assistance in the future, with a number of initiatives considered and implemented. These included:

• A community grants program, dispersing over $130,000 to more than 36 agencies involved with older people.
• Scholarships to fund undergraduate and postgraduate nursing scholarships at the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and the University of South Australia, and postgraduate (doctoral) research scholarships at Flinders University (in the area of Disaster Management) and Alzheimer’s Australia.
• A perpetual undergraduate nursing scholarship for a student of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background at the University of South Australia.
• An additional research project through COTA Seniors Voice into the engagement of older people in the community.
• Funding for research into bushfire and disaster management.
• A Church Service was held on 21 March, at the Malvern Uniting Church to commence the yearlong celebrations. Later in the year, a revised version of Resthaven’s written history, Resthaven - the first sixty years was updated by author and historian Rob Linn. It was a new experience for some Board members to be interviewed in this historical context.

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Resthaven’s Strategic Plan for 2010-2015 was launched, with a key decision to move away from the ‘Mission and Vision’ statements to a single ‘Statement of Purpose’, reflecting Resthaven’s focus on outstanding care and support, and recognising diversity. The Board also reviewed what ‘we value’ at Resthaven.

A review into the current management structure and corporate areas (Human Resources, Workforce Development, and Risk and Compliance) resulted in a restructure. The department of Culture, People and Risk was formed, and a new role was created: Senior Manager, Residential Care.

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The turn of a new decade offered a period of reflection. By now, Resthaven offered accommodation to more than 1,000 elderly people — some in independent living units and others in care — in residential aged care facilities. Another 7,000 or more in the community were able to call on Resthaven’s in-home community care and support to allow them to continue to live in their own homes. Services across the state were delivered by 1,600 staff and 450 volunteers. It was a far cry from the opening of the first ‘Rest Haven’, at Wattle Avenue, Brighton, three-quarters of a century earlier and was indicative of the moves, by Government, over the previous decade-and-a-half, to expand the range of available programs by way of consumer-directed care.

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