The “Our Town Cares” project was established by Trilogy Care to meet the needs of older people living in regional and remote areas of Australia. This week Coral speaks with David Melloy and Lesley Bryce about their experiences in establishing in-home aged care work forces from within rural and remote communities.

The Trilogy Care Foundation and Ironbark Housing are two philanthropic ventures that Trilogy Care has established in order to support older people and ensure they are able to stay in their own homes and their communities for as long as possible.

In this episode:

• David’s role as General Manager of Communities at Trilogy Care
• Empowering the local community to coordinate in-home aged care services in their local community
• Ensuring that the local older residents get the care that they need and deserve
• The model has evolved so that the community can focus on actual care and coordination
•  How Lesley Bryce became involved and why
• The support provided by Trilogy Care
• Lesley’s personal story of caring for her mum while trying to support the community
• Where the workforce came from within the community
• Sourcing clinical staff
• Being flexible and resourceful
• The challenges Lesley faced in getting people assessed for support
• The concerns of older people about co-contributions under Support at Home
• The Our Community Cares model keeps older people in regional and remote areas living in their own homes and communities longer
• This model must be community driven
• Trilogy Care Foundation is a not-for-profit entity supporting local communities
• Ironbark Housing is working to provide affordable, appropriate housing for older people in small regional towns
• Helping older Australians to live a good quality of life by giving back to communities

Resources mentioned:

• Bell Cares website
• Our Town Cares website

Connect with Trilogy Care and David Melloy:

• Trilogy Care website
• Phone: 1300 459 190    
• David Melloy LinkedIn     

Connect with Lesley Bryce:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Coral Wilkinson: 

• Instagram 
• LinkedIn 

Follow See Me Aged Care Navigators:

• See Me ACN website
• Facebook
• Instagram

More about Your Aged Care Compass podcast: 

Do you support an older loved one at home and you're ready to give up because it’s just too hard? Your Aged Care Compass is for you.

We're Coral and Michelle, the sisters behind our business, See Me Aged Care Navigators.

Coral is a registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience in both health and aged care. A former assessor with the aged care assessment team, an advocate and author, there’s not much Coral doesn’t know about Australia’s aged care system.

Michelle is a former pharmacist with over 30 years in the public health and private sectors of pharmacy. Michelle is the client care manager for our business. 

Our story started as one of supporting our parents to remain in their own home, to be as independent as possible and remain connected to their community. When we eventually needed extra support, we achieved this because we know Australia’s aged care system so well. We knew what programs could assist us and our parents.

Your Aged Care Compass podcast brings together not only our personal experience in supporting our parents but also our vast professional experience in supporting other families to keep their loved ones at home. 

We'll help you makes sense of Australia’s aged care system and bring you topics related to ageing as well. Legal, financial, health, forward planning and more.

 Your Aged Care Compass will guide you clearly and compassionately to the right support at the right time for your ageing parents and loved ones. 

Like what you hear? Please leave us a rating and review. We’d love you to share this podcast with any friends or family who have older loved ones.