Making memories: One woman's heartwarming mission to document the lives of aged care residents
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A Queensland woman hopes her program to create photo albums chronicling the lives of residents in aged care will inspire other communities to do the same.
Michelle Kinbacher has worked for Queensland Health for 34 years, and is currently the recreation officer at the Biggenden Multi-Purpose Health Centre three and a half hours drive north of Brisbane.
The centre is a hospital that also provides aged care, community and allied health services to the town, which has a population of less than 1,000 people, and the surrounding rural districts.
Shelley, as she's known around town, organises weekly activities for the residents such as birthday parties, family visits, cooking, gardening, musical guests, and even the odd fashion show.
She photographs every event and once a month the residents add the photos to albums donated by the local newsagency, decorating the pages with stickers and ribbons and creating a very personal keepsake they call a memory book.
"I've always loved elderly people and I always wanted photos of my grandmother and this was one way I'd love some other family to receive photos of their family members as well," she said.
"It's very rewarding to know that at the end of the day there's some lovely photos of those special people in our lives.
"Coming from a little country town everybody knows each other and these residents have probably watched me grow up."
Ms Kinbacher said producing the books was also great therapy for the residents, encouraging the use of fine motor skills and memory to build them.
"They just love looking through the books over the years of their time here and just seeing what's happened and how different they look," she said.
Books help residents embrace life in aged care
The books also help create a social atmosphere among the residents, one that encourages participation for new residents like Audrey, who recently transitioned into aged care.
"I've got them [photos] in my room of the whole family and the grandchildren when they all graduated," she said.
"I'm very blessed with the family I have … they don't live here, which is the only sad thing, but they visit as often as they can.
"It's lovely though, having these memories … they're lovely photos and good memories."
Those memories also help ease the burden for the resident's family members like Rod Barnhardt, whose father Col was a resident for four years before he died.
He said his dad's scrapbook was now a treasured family keepsake and something he believed could only be made in a country town.
"We were quite surprised when we got it; it was quite a big album with a lot of photos that bring back a lot of memories," he said.
"That's the good part about it because in a small facility like here it's more like family.
"Here you've got the memories of what happened while he was in here … you didn't have to live right here to know what was going on."
While her colleagues and the residents' families were full of praise for her work, Ms Kinbacher in turn credits the community of Biggenden with creating a special environment for a project like this to flourish.
She has become the chronicler of a part of life that often goes undocumented, but she said the bittersweet work was worth it for the reaction of families when they were presented with their loved one's book.
"They're very happy that I've been able to do this for them," she said.
It's also part of her own process to say goodbye.
"It's very touching, very touching," she said.
And why does she do it?
"Because I love them all," she said.
Topics: regional, family, death, charities-and-community-organisations, careers, aged-care, biggenden-4621, bundaberg-4670
