A Tapestry of Caring

That’s what we call the history, community involvement and future development of Dorothy Impey Home which will become the home for 90 residents of the City of Moreland when it opens in 2008.

An idea was born in 1962, when the late Dorothy Impey, whose extensive community involvement, which, amongst many other activities, included delivering “Meals on Wheels”, realised that there were many lonely elderly people who found it difficult to live alone and required additional care.

This set Dorothy Impey on the path of looking for a viable alternative. The seeds of the need for a residential facility in today’s City of Moreland were sown. Following a series of meetings in 1964 the Coburg Home for the Aged Association was established. Outstanding support from organisations such as the Coburg City Council, Coburg Rotary, Melbourne Legacy together with thousands of individuals and business from our local community have seen this organisation develop into what is today known as the Dorothy Impey Home.

From those early days many properties were purchased and consolidated into our current site in Cumberland Road which is the home to 36 residents.

Now four decades later as needs have dramatically increased and with broad community and government support, the Dorothy Impey Home is taking a very large step to cater for the needs of the ageing Moreland residents by building a new home for a total of 90 residents on the site of the former Melbourne College of Textiles site located nearby on Cumberland Road.

Our new Dorothy Impey Home continues weaving together our total focus on resident care, involving the best “fabric” we can provide. Our fabric involves weaving together the elements of:

• A Board, CEO and senior management team whose focus is to provide the best available care and living environment for our residents
• The caring delivered by DIH staff members, whose expertise, experience, dedication and above all, warmth and compassion for each and every resident with whom they interact is an underlying principle in the DIH philosophy. With low staff turnover the ability to build strong rapport with residents and their families ensures meaningful continuity of care.
• At DIH, staff members serve as advocates for residents, often developing close and lasting friendships with family members in the process. DIH is a home which has a community feel and a community soul.
• Families of residents are encouraged to visit often and to take an active role in the care of their loved one.
• Volunteers and community supporters work together to provide “special extras” in a home environment for our residents.

Weaving together all of these elements are what we call our “Tapestry of Caring”.

We invite you to provide your special fabric to further develop this tapestry as we build the new Dorothy Impey Home.