If you need emergency services, please contact 000
Are you feeling burnt out? Consider aged care respite.
Looking for a rewarding career in aged care and ready to start now?
View our current retirement living homes for sale.
Search
Contact Us
Close
Services to keep you independent
Government-funded support
One on one care and support
Support to help you stay at home
Allied health support services
Everyone deserves a break
Government or privately funded
Connect with others
Help to access support services
Personalised care and support
14 locations across Victoria
Principles of Montessori
Tailored to individual interests
Helping everyone adjust
If you care for someone, we’re here
Maintain your quality of life
Here for people of all ages
Take a break and have some fun
All your questions answered
Independent living for over 55s
Our latest properties available
Inner Melbourne communities
Camberwell
Deepdene
Kew
Hawthorn
Toorak
Suburban communities
Clayton
Kyneton
Trentham
Eltham
Bacchus Marsh
Pakenham
Balwyn
Brunswick West
Greensborough
Torquay
Everyone deserves a home
services for 18+
Great places to call home
Reach your developmental goals
Pathways to paid employment
Small group programs
Stay independent at home
Get the best out of your NDIS plan
support for 13-18 year olds
Reach developmental goals
Fun programs for your teenagers
NDIS planning
programs for 0-12 year olds
Support for developmental delays
Fun programs for your kids
A school where your child can shine
About St Paul’s College
Prepare your child for school
View our for school policies
Commited to the safety of your child
Menu
Back
Enter your search term below
24 October 2022
VMCH aged care staff living in flood ravaged areas across Victoria’s Hume region have banded together to support each other – and their older clients – through the crisis.
Despite many of their own homes being under threat, and some unfortunately underwater, At-Home Aged Care (AHAC) staff have continued to work to ensure older clients are safe and well.
VMCH supports hundreds of older people with personal care, allied health, nursing, transport and meal support across the Shepparton, Rochester and Echuca regions, hit hard by devastating floods this past week.
For Shepparton resident and Rostering Coordinator Brooke Chew, ‘home’ is now a caravan in colleague Eloise Crees’ house in nearby Yabba North. Clinical Case Manager Eloise and her family offered Brooke a place to stay when they learned her home was under threat from flood water.
“My husband and I were actually on our way to Echuca testing out our new caravan but turned around when we learned flooding was hitting crisis point in Shepp,” Eloise says. “I knew Brooke lived alone so we wanted to help.”
The trio went to the nearby showgrounds and lined up for their ration of sandbags, which they took back to Brooke’s to help protect her home. Thankfully, the water only reached Brooke’s letterbox, but the whole experience was deeply unsettling.
I’m ok now, because I know, at the moment, my house is ok,” Brooke says. I’ve been very up and down all week but having the support of Eloise and her family has been great. The caravan was like a luxury. I would have been happy sleeping in a tent or on Eloise’s driveway at one point! It was a difficult situation.
Water floods the entrance of Brooke’s housing estate in Shepparton
Despite all this, Brooke and Eloise have continued to work from Eloise’s home, coordinating client rosters and working alongside case managers and client liaison officers to make welfare checks on VMCH clients to ensure they are safe and have adequate food and medications. They say, thankfully, all of their clients are safe for now, with most taken in by friends or family.
The pair are also quick to point out they’re not the only ones helping out, with most AHAC staff across Hume going the extra mile to support hundreds of clients affected by the floods.
“One of our colleagues’ houses is completely flooded, others are, or have been, trapped in their homes, and everyone is dealing with road closures, power outages and evacuations,” Eloise says. “We help because we know our clients are in the same boat. Being involved in a natural disaster is a pretty terrifying thing to happen to your community, and especially being elderly and vulnerable, we just want to help them.”
Their manager Magali Kaplan says the actions of the AHAC team are a true reflection of VMCH’s values.
Most people wouldn’t be able to conceive of working during such a time, but our staff have stepped up and are putting their own challenges aside to ensure the people we support are looked after. It’s incredible, and I’m very proud of them all.
VMCH will continue to provide support to its ageing clients as they begin the cleanup once floodwaters fully drop.
More news articles in Staff and Volunteers
Locating the information you need has become far easier with our useful guide. Answer a few simple questions and you will be on your way.
Not sure where to start?
Contact us
→
Who needs our services?
Our Digital & Marketing Agency - ID Digital Agency
Locating the information you need has become far easier with our useful guide.
Answer a few simple questions and you will be on your way.