Proud to belong I have been fortunate over the past few weeks to visit several of our residential sites and meet the residents, community clients, families, volunteers and staff who contribute to building our strong communities. Our Celebration of Ageing Well events, coinciding with Seniors Week in October, were a wonderful opportunity for the members of the Board and Executive team to connect with the residents, clients, families, staff and volunteers across all services, to acknowledge the many achievements of the past 12 months, to celebrate milestone birthdays, and to say a very big ‘thank you’ to all staff and volunteers for providing services with care, empathy and love. With many events featuring fun themes from Mad Hatter’s tea parties to resident art exhibitions, there were high levels of participation and I was able to witness the benefits of social interaction and the sense of accomplishment among the residents and staff. I met many people who encapsulated the ‘living well’ philosophy and met families who were proud to share their own positive experiences of Uniting AgeWell. In reflecting on the Celebration of Ageing Well, I felt an enormous sense of pride regarding the quality of services we provide, the professionalism of our staff, and our very clear focus on becoming better at what we do. 4 The quality of food is one of the biggest areas of complaint across the entire aged care sector and it’s something the Board, together with Uniting AgeWell staff, are very well aware of. We know good nutrition leads to better health outcomes for residents, so we have adopted several new initiatives to boost our staff knowledge and improve the overall dining experience for our residents. I had the great pleasure of participating in one of those initiatives when I attended Masterclass 2018 in Hobart in October and was extremely impressed by the talents of our chefs. As a judge of the team cooking competition, I tasted and scored fresh, immaculately presented and delicious main meals and desserts prepared by our chefs, along with their creative table settings, which added to the excitement of the day. This initiative enables us to encourage team work, communication and innovation, which leads to service improvements and better resident outcomes. I was really impressed to witness the camaraderie among our chefs and their passion for providing excellent food, as were our other judges, including three lovely ladies from one of our Hobart residences. Raelene Thompson Board Chair
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