-
Source: ONE News -
Watch Video
-
Related
As Canterbury residents try to get their homelives back to normal after Saturday morning's earthquake, the lives of 60 elderly people have today been turned upside down, with the permanent evacuation of their rest home.
The news came as authorities urged the rest of Canterbury's aged population to ask for help if they need it.
For the past six days the 68 residents at Avonview Home in Christchurch have been without water, proper toilets and showers.
"It's been a nightmare, an absolute nightmare," owner Grant Buchanan told ONE News.
Until Monday, staff had to bury waste in the backyard and on Tuesday Buchanan was left with no other option, with the building condemned.
He was forced to tell residents, some of whom thought they would spend the rest of their lives at Avonview, they would have to live somewhere else.
Buchanan said the news was a tragedy.
"It's particularly sad for us because of the relationship that we have with the residents and their families."
Fourteen of the residents will move to Parkview Hotel on Hagley, which has cleared a whole floor for Avonview residents.
Respite care centre set up
For the elderly who aren't in rest homes, Age Concern is urging them not to suffer alone.
In the eastern suburbs of Christchurch, 3000 homes are being visited to see if there are vulnerable or frail elderly people who might need care and support.
And a temporary respite care facility for older or disabled people has been established by the Canterbury District Health Board.
People can be referred to the facility, based at Princess Margaret Hospital, through their general practitioners, the DHB said.
"We are working with the aged residential care providers to best allocate respite care in this unit or elsewhere," DHB director of allied health Stella Ward said.
"We want people who require some nursing care, but are relatively independent and mobile, to have somewhere to go for a short time."
The unit has 20 beds and patients can stay up to seven nights.
Ward said all people currently in the facility had come from their own homes so their carers could have a break.
