“I became an ACON Community Visitor around 2016. My role was to visit Yaralla House on the Dame Eadith Walker Estate near Concord Hospital. I was assigned one of the facilities residents. All had AIDS-related dementia to some degree.
I worked with the on-site occupational therapist to run singing sessions on Mondays prior to their BBQ. The group remembered songs, lyrics and singers which stimulated their memories in an enjoyable way. We also went for walks around the lovely grounds of the estate. The formal rose gardens which were used to film The Great Gatsby with Leonardo Dicaprio, and also Maggie Beer recorded her cooking shows there.
It was an incredibly rewarding experience for me, and I still remember their names with great affection.
I did this up until COVID. Afterwards, the residents had NDIS packages, and some of the guys would visit ACON headquarters for lunch on a Friday with Paul Jones, and I would help out with the social interaction.”
