Our homes are managed by a Residential Aged Care Manager, an experienced leader responsible for a resident's overall care and experience while living in a home.

Melissa is the Residential Aged Care Manager at our Estia Health Blakehurst home and has worked in aged care for the past 22 years in clinical care roles before becoming a Residential Aged Care Manager. Melissa understands how difficult it can be for people starting to look at residential aged care homes.

“People often end up having to make a difficult decision for themselves or a loved one to move into residential aged care when they can no longer care for themselves at home. It can happen suddenly following an illness or fall and time in hospital, or someone’s been trying to cope at home on their own but struggling”.

When a resident first arrives at the home, Melissa and her team spend a lot of time getting to know all about them as a person. Understanding them as an individual means we can help them settle into the home, so they feel safe and comfortable. For me, it’s a turning point when a resident has been with us for a few days, that you start seeing small improvements, and gradually they come out of their shell, start putting some weight on and generally seem much brighter in themselves".

Melissa feels excited to be leading such a fantastic team at Estia Health Blakehurst. "With skilled Registered Nurses, carers and members of the team trained in lifestyle and hospitality – it’s all of us together that make Estia Health Blakehurst a home for our residents and a place where they feel safe, secure and comfortable. We don’t have restricted visiting hours, so encourage families to pop in and visit anytime – this can be such an important way to help the them feel settled and for the family to have that peace of mind that their mum, dad or grandparent is doing well’.