Royal Freemasons Lifestyle Coordinator, Trish, makes sure every day that residents at our Monash Gardens home remain connected to the things they love to do — the things that give them purpose and make them smile.
Warm, energetic and chatty, Trish has been in the role for an impressive 10 years and still loves every colourful and action-packed moment of it.
“I would rather do this than any other job,” she says. “My role is to make sure the residents are doing the activities they want to do. It’s part of our person-centred care approach, which is very holistic. We have a tonne of activities that we do here at Monash Gardens. Depending on resident preferences, we do craft, art, exercise, or board games. So long as the residents are happy, that’s our goal.”
The residents have many favourite activities such as going on day trips to Lysterfield Lakes or Cardinia Reservoir, picnics, lunch at the pub, carpet bowls (“Doesn’t matter how old you are, you’re always competitive,” says Trish), and bingo.
Because so many different activity preferences are catered for, Trish loves the variety of the role and the chance to make the residents smile.
“I like the challenge of the changes, and I love the residents — they are just beautiful people who deserve our love and respect, and our support to remain physically and mentally active for as long as possible,” she says.
“My favourite thing is living the moment with residents who are in cognitive decline. When they participate in lifestyle activities, they are just in the moment and it’s all about the smile that you get from them — that’s our reward.”
To be a Lifestyle Coordinator you need to be sensitive and adaptable to the needs of residents but also resilient and fun-loving. As Trish says, “You’ve got to have empathy and a sense of humour, and sometimes you have to think outside the box. You have to be healthy yourself because you run around a lot, and you need to have a sense of fun.”
