100 new jobs on offer in Tauranga

Up to 100 jobs are promised with the announcement another retirement home is to be built in Tauranga.

However, industry insiders are concerned there might not be enough carers to cope with increasing demand.

The Avenues is the third instalment from retirement village providers Metlifecare and construction begins early next year. The village is expected to be completed by autumn 2019.

Meanwhile, Metlifecare just opened Somervale Village in Mount Maunganui this week and construction has already begun on care homes at its Papamoa Beach Village location.

Clinical nurse director at Metlifecare Somervale Tanya Bish said it began advertising in September for Somervale and advertising for The Avenues and Papamoa Beach Village would begin a few months prior to opening.

"The up to 100 new jobs refers to the staffing of the three care homes specifically. These are permanent roles, with a mixture of full and part-time."

Bish said there were many roles that needed to be filled including nursing, caring, cooking and maintenance staff.

New Zealand Aged Care Association chief executive Simon Wallace said staffing the ever-increasing number of rest homes and retirement homes that offered aged care facilities was becoming "a real problem".

"Nationally, we are going to need 1000 extra caregivers a year between now and 2026-27 because our resident numbers are going from 37,000 to 57,000," Wallace said.

In Tauranga, the number of aged care residents in rest homes was expected to increase 41 per cent by 2026-27. Currently, there are 1300 aged residential care beds in Tauranga but, without more care facilities and additions to supply, the city will reach full capacity by 2019.

"We've got a problem in that the current Government policy that was initiated by the previous Government tightened up on how long current immigrants can stay, irrespective of whether their employer can find a [replacement] or not. It's a real problem.

"We just can't find enough of the right Kiwis to do the job. It's not an easy job but the pay has gone up. I think over time it will [help] but that's not going to help straight away."

Wallace was hopeful. He was meeting with the new Minister of Immigration next week to discuss the issue.

Retirement Villages Association executive director John Collyns said the Bay of Plenty had more people aged over 75 years living in retirement homes than anywhere else in New Zealand.

"It's a big business in the Bay of Plenty area."

Collyns said the number of retirement home projects in the works - either in the consents process or under construction - in the Bay of Plenty made up about 80 per cent of New Zealand's development pipeline.

"Part of that includes serviced apartments and some of those will be aged care."

Collyns said they had to keep building to keep up with the region's projections for an ageing population.

Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless said while the city was keeping up with the growing elder population, "the predicted increase ... [means] over the next 30 years we will need to plan well in advance to cater for the needs into the future".

"Having the right caring staff is so important to proper care of our elder folk. Anecdotally we need to look to nurses and carers from overseas to meet the staffing needs.

"Fortunately, those I have met have been wonderful people and dedicated to their work, both locals and immigrants."

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stan Gregec acknowledged it might be difficult filling some of the skilled roles but more jobs were always welcome and the new builds were "a great confidence booster".

"People moving into retirement homes can often mean existing bigger homes are freed up for newcomers and families, so it's a positive trend all round, in my view."

Getting older in Tauranga

- There are 16 New Zealand Aged Care Association member care facilities in Tauranga.
- All care facilities in Tauranga (members and non-members) provide about 1265 aged residential care (ARC) beds. This figure has changed by only around 1.7 per cent over the last four years, compared to 6 per cent growth since 2013 nationally.
- Current ARC occupancy (residents/beds) in Tauranga is around 85 per cent, slightly less than the national figure (September 2017) of 86.9 per cent.
Source - New Zealand Aged Care Association

Making the decision to move into a rest home 'easy'

Somervale Retirement Home resident Pippa Cunliffe says she is loving life in the new facility. Photo / George Novak

Pippa Cunliffe says moving into a rest home was the best possible thing she could have done.

But the 76-year-old's biggest barrier was not waiting lists or lack of options, it was cultural differences within her family.

Mrs Cunfliffe moved into Metlifecare's new Somervale Retirement Village Mount Maunganui village this week.

Mrs Cunliffe said she was loving it but warned people to talk with their loved ones before a parent needed help with day-to-day living.

"I was in Monowai Village, which is half the RSA and half council. I was there for seven years and loved it. But then I couldn't do anything for myself. I couldn't make a cup of tea or peel a potato. It was hard."

Mrs Cunliffe and her family when to five aged care facilities and chose Somervale. She said there was no red tape or waiting list she had to deal with, which was important for her after initially making the decision to move.

Mrs Cunliffe's has five children, including a daughter of Pacific Island and Maori heritage. Such cultures often believe parents should be cared for by their children as they reach their twilight years. Because Mrs Cunfliffe wasn't, her daughter was heavily criticised.

"She got a bit of flack, with the cultural side of things. But it just wasn't possible ( to move in with her daughter).

"But this has been the best thing. It has been easy for us. A lot of families don't have that ease, sometimes parents don't want to go or they feel dumped by their family. So it needs to be discussed, like funeral plans, before anything happens."