News
New Hawthorndale Care Village ‘a revolutionary step forward’
It may be a cliché to say “as one door closes another opens” but that’s precisely what happened on Thursday when the Hawthorndale Care Village was officially opened.
The $39 million, state-of-the-art, community-funded aged-care facility was born around a conference table in 2015 when the Calvary Hospital board decided they wanted to be able to care for the growing number of Southlanders diagnosed with dementia.
Hawthorndale will take the place of Calvary Hospital whose staff and residents will be transitioned to the new care village.
Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds said it “represents a revolutionary step forward in dementia care for our country”.
That’s because back in 2015, when the Calvary board were looking for a way forward, manager Margaret Brown spent time researching the best options for dementia care and came back with a Dutch model, The Hogeweyk.
The idea was to replicate everyday community life in a setting that’s also safe for patients living in various stages of dementia.
Hawthorndale Care Village offers 10 two-bedroom retirement villas for independent living (with space to add more) along with 13 care houses covering a range of 86 residential, dementia and hospital-level care beds.
There’s also a village centre with a café, library, theatre, chapel, a men’s shed and landscaped gardens, encouraging residents and their families to enjoy fresh air and sunshine.
There’s even a stocked dairy that looks like a Four Square, and a kids’ play area in case it’s raining when the grandchildren come to visit.
Residents in care houses will live in small groups of six or seven where they can maintain the rhythm of everyday living — the houses have big kitchens and living spaces, a laundry, en suite bedrooms and the walls are adorned with Kiwi art.
Trust chairman Frank O’Boyle said the village had been built by the community, for the community.
“It reflects the values that make us who we are — compassion, respect, and a shared commitment to care for our elderly and those living with dementia,” he said.
This was the same thing Southlanders did in the 1960s when they realised they needed a hospital for the elderly and Calvary Hospital was built, O’Boyle said.
But the Hawthorndale build has not been without hurdles.
When a fundraising campaign was launched in 2019, people said the goal was unattainable, Hawthorndale Cape Village Charitable Trust deputy chairperson Sarah Hannan recalled.
And then the pandemic hit in 2020, driving up inflation and building costs and despite starting the build in 2022, the trust only reached the fundraising goal in September 2023.
Donations have come from all over Southland — many of them anonymously, board member Paddy O’Brien said — and many businesses volunteered their time and skills to the project.
While Hannan thanked business owners like Scott and Jocelyn O’Donnell from HWR Group, whose commitment to the project was “inspiring”, O’Brien took time to thank Hannan.
“It was your roll-up your sleeves, straight talking, non-nonsense approach” that gave the project the energy it needed, he said.
The Calvary Hospital building on Centre St had been bought by Blue Sky Meats who would take possession once all residents and staff had been moved to Hawthorndale.
