‘Staying on country’: Cooktown pushes for aged care facility

Three remote Far North councils have joined forces to push for residential aged care to avoid displacing local elderly forced to go to bigger regional centres.

COOK Shire Council is pushing for a 40-bed aged care facility so elderly residents aren’t forced to leave the region to access care.

Council has produced a preliminary business case for it.

Mayor Peter Scott said the hospital and health services in Cooktown were under stress.

He said council owned land close to the Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service ideal for aged care.

“We started thinking about a retirement village but there’s more need for an aged care facility,” Cr Scott said.

Cook Shire, Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire and Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire are collaborating on the proposal.

An aged care facility in Cooktown would avoid the scenario where locals are taken out of the community to access services, Cook Shire Council says. Picture: Supplied.

“It’s our land but we don’t have the staff or resources to run it, we’ve got to find somebody like Blue Care or Anglicare,” Cr Scott said.

“Blue Care run the Cape York Family Centre and it’s a fabulous operation.

Cr Scott said Torres and Cape Health Services had some aged care accommodation and there were about six Sunbird cottages at the hospital.

“We need federal and state government support,” Cr Scott said.

“When we were chasing a renal dialysis satellite operation here 20 years ago, we did a lot of study on people who had to leave home and go to Cairns, and we identified if you could stay living locally, life expectancy improved by 30 per cent.

“That fits for old age and dementia care, people would much prefer to be on country with a spiritual attachment and family attachment as well, not relying on strangers,” Cr Scott said.

“We think it has got everything going for it – we are all getting older.”

Residents left to soil themselves, insufficient staff: Blue Care Mareeba comprehensively fails audit

Originally published as ‘Staying on country’: Cooktown pushes for aged care facility