Millvale House Napier

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Stay up to date with what is going on at Millvale House Napier via our facebook page and articles from our newsletter below.

If you would like to receive our newsletters please talk to the managers to get added to the list.

Magic moments from our home

We had an outing yesterday and one of our residents saw all the fresh snow on the Ruahine ranges. He told us all stories of him as a young man tramping through those ranges, and how later in life he took groups through as a guide. He was so excited to be able to share his memories, it was really lovely. He thanked the driver and said it was the best day of his life.

We have a resident who had all his daughters together for the first time in seven years. As a surprise they all came to celebrate his birthday. He had a look of surprise, pride and tears in his eyes when he saw them. It was so heartwarming. Despite finding walking very difficult, he walked his girls to the door and waved them goodbye. Priceless.

  • Warm Greetings from Fran and Suzette - July newsletter

    It is hard to believe that it is winter already and we have had our 1st year anniversary here at Millvale Napier. It has been an absolute pleasure to care for your family members.

    Stage 1 of our renovations is almost complete. It looks fantastic. The builders are focusing on the outside pathways, gardens and fencing. Plants are being planted, and curtains will soon be hung. It will not be long before we move in now. Angela, Suzette and Fran would like to take to this opportunity to thank all the staff for their support during the renovations.

    Our Winter Family Gathering is coming up and our Activities Team is putting their heads together to make this a fun occasion. Our gathering will be held on Tuesday the 29th of July at 2pm. Please mark this on your calendar. We would love to see you all!

    Our Activities Team are doing a great job of keeping the residents engaged. We hope you are enjoying the pictures we are posting on our Facebook page. We have been spending a lot of one-on-one time with our residents. They have been enjoying what we call Pedal Power, which is a pedal-like machine that the residents are encouraged to use with either their feet or hands. We also have a beach ball that we kick or throw around either in a group or individually. The ladies at Millvale Napier love their nails filed and then painted. It was lovely to get out and about with Driving Miss Daisy, seeing all the snow on the ranges and all the boats at the Marina. It was a huge success.

    We have welcomed two new Registered Nurses, Priya and Jinu, and Priyanka joins us as a Caregiver. We also said farewell to our Caregiver, Adrian.

    Angela left for maternity leave late April and on the 8th of May, Angela, Lucio and Angelo welcomed a wee girl, Lucia Angela. She is absolutely gorgeous, and they are all doing well.

    We are fortunate to now have Suzette as our Acting Clinical Manager. She is doing a fantastic job. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to talk with Suzette or Fran. Please knock on our door or give us a call.

    We look forward to seeing you all at the Winter Family Gathering.

    Kia tupato kia noho haumaru me te mahana I te takurua.

    Warm Greetings from Fran and Suzette - July newsletter

  • Thank you for your feedback

    At each of our rest homes around the country we have a regular family focus group. These groups are facilitated by Peter Hume who works for Dementia Care NZ from Christchurch. Sessions are aimed at getting some feedback from family members who visit often about how we can improve.

    We ask questions like: How can we make life better for your loved one here? How can we make life easier for you? How can we support you more? At these meetings we often receive a gem of an idea that we take forward and put into action.

    This year we had a session at Millvale House Napier. The family members were generally very positive about the care their loved ones receive and were enthusiastic about moving into the newly renovated wing when it opens.

    They also had some suggestions which we are following up:
    • Investigate whether pet therapy groups can visit more regularly.
    • Look for hairdresser who can visit regularly.
    • Investigate whether we can get a podiatrist to come into the home.
    • Home names – the focus group participants suggested a couple of names and will think about this further and feed back to Fran if they have further ideas.

    We would like to thank everyone who was able to come to the family focus group. We really appreciate your time providing us with this feedback. We will continue to update you as we make progress with the issues raised in the focus groups.

    If you have some feedback for us please do get in touch, and we also appreciate hearing your thoughts through the EPOA survey.

  • Building Projects

    My name is Adam Crow. I am Dementia Care NZ’s Construction Project Manager. My role is to plan and organise our construction projects. I work with architects and engineers to agree on designs, and organise tradespeople and materials. I monitor each project through to completion and gaining compliance. The wellbeing, comfort and safety of our residents and team members is a priority throughout this process.

    Dementia Care NZ is currently undertaking large refurbishments of several homes, including Millvale House Napier. We are looking forward to bright, fresh homes which are warm and comfortable for our residents.

    At Millvale House Napier large scale renovations of the entire home are taking place, both inside and outside. We are creating more user friendly spaces to give our residents greater comfort and many of the bedrooms are being made larger. The work is being carried out in two stages. We are well through work on the first wing and it is expected to be completed by mid 2025. We will then begin working on the second wing which we are expecting will be complete in early 2026.

  • Greetings from the Millvale House Napier team - April newsletter

    We hope that you all enjoyed a lovely summer and festive season!

    We missed out on our normal hot summer this year, with lots of rain over December and January. Despite this, we headed outdoors whenever we could. Our Diversional Therapists have been working hard to keep our residents moving in the afternoons and weekend Zumba with Kathy and Rose has proven a real highlight for residents and their families. Greg and Wendell continue to cook fabulous meals and treats for the residents. Our garden is looking fantastic now and it’s so nice to have a couple of our residents help with leaf blowing and wiping down the BBQ table in the mornings.

    Our renovations are coming along; Will and his crew of builders are making steady progress. The bedrooms have been framed and the exterior cladding is going on. Internal walls are being lined. Our residents love seeing the builders come and go and our men folk are always interested in what is on the trailers. Our new kitchen is looking fantastic; it’s a bright, airy space.

    We are looking forward to welcoming you into the refurbished part of our home. We are excited to be planning a family gathering once we have moved in. Unfortunately, due to COVID’s arrival in our home in December, we couldn’t hold our Christmas gathering. Staff and residents also celebrated two birthdays during this time. We made the most of things and it was wonderful to share birthday cakes and laughs. By the 24th of December we were lucky enough to re-open our doors to friends and family. This was a great relief to everyone. Angela and I acknowledge and appreciate how difficult it was for you to stay away from our home at that time of the year.

    We have recently had three new staff members join our team: Shalini and Alshifa have joined us as Registered Nurses and Wendell joined us as our new cook. Wendell did a fantastic job of cooking his very first kiwi Christmas lunch for us! We were sad to farewell Younse.

    We are looking forward to the coming weeks as we enjoy the rest of autumn.