Carpenter Court Aged Care Centre: A Place to Call Home
One of Carpenter Court Aged Care Centre (“Carpenter Court”) Manager, Doris Damerau’s, personal priorities is to build a culture reinforced by warmth and support. “So, I start the day by trying to greet everyone with a cheery hello. The residents look forward to seeing me and asking me how I am, I love that.”
Doris has been at the Centre for the last seven years and invests deeply in her team, reaffirming, “the most important thing I can do here is have a culture that creates a welcoming atmosphere of family, home and respect, when people walk through the door, they can feel it – and I think we’re pretty successful at doing just that.”
Much like how she invests in her staff, Doris equally invests in the residents at Carpenter Court. “We know our residents really well and it makes this house a great home, I think on the whole, residents are really happy here, they have choice and know their rights and that makes me proud.”
When reflecting on her time at the Centre, Doris cheerfully recalls one of her most treasured memories; a ‘Christmas in July’ holiday that took place in July 2018. “We went to the Blue Mountains, and rented a house. On the trip, I had a particular resident that would get up at 4:30 in the morning and he’d come and sit in the kitchen with me, we would both be in our dressing gowns while I prepared the food, I realised later how much that meant to him, to share the ordinary things in life with me. Equally, another resident who attended the holiday echoed the same sentiment, she said to me, ‘you don’t understand, I’ve never had a holiday. I have never gone anywhere.’ It warmed my heart.”
In light of the Centre’s 45th Anniversary, Doris notes that it isn’t quite a 'milestone birthday’ but the Centre will still celebrate with a cake, morning tea and some balloons. It will be a smaller celebration but perhaps still an apt moment to acknowledge a handful of the poignant everyday moments that encapsulate human connection, love and how Carpenter Court is for many residents, a place to call ‘home.’
