Page 7 - Synovum Care Magazine

MEET THE TEAM AT WYNYARD
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Meet the team

Susan Lightfoot

Took a leap of faith and never looked back

In 2016 Susan took a leap of faith, sold her house in Armidale and moved to
Tasmania to work at Synovum Care Wynyard. It’s been a long held dream to
work for an organisation that’s forging a new path in aged care and she is
loving her role at Wynyard. And she has no regrets!

Susan has worked in both childcare and aged care. In 2010, she spent 6
months working as a Teacher’s Aide in a remote indigenous community at
Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. The program was funded by The
Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation and Susan was fortunate to be
chosen from fifty applicants. She recalls driving down the Stewart Highway
and coming across an old beer barrel at the side of the road – it was the
signpost for her destination! She found the Monkata community very
welcoming, friendly and generous people. It was a community of ten houses
with no shops and no electricity and Susan and her team set up school in an
old shed.

Susan remembers that the kids had very little in the way of entertainment. They were given an orange
every lunch time which some used as a football. She canvased family, friends and community
groups back home to get donations of sports equipment. Everyone came through and generously
donated soccer balls, cricket bats, Frisbees, tennis racquets and much more - the kids were beside
themselves with excitement. Susan had about twenty kids in same class ranging from aged four to
fourteen. The team formed a community group of volunteers to mentor the kids and help with
additional study. She recalls the kids piling into the back of a four wheel drive and driving a hundred
kilometres to the nearest town to play sport and spend time with the volunteers which were made up of
mainly school teachers and police. Susan loved her time there and said she gained more from the
experience than anyone else.

Susan identifies strongly with the Synovum Care values and strives towards achieving the vision every
day. Recently, Mary Dall’s daughter contacted Wynyard advising that she’d be visiting her mum in
February and if she could take Mary on an outing. Mary is mostly bedridden and the first reaction was
that an outing would be impossible. But Mary really wanted to go. Reflecting on the values, Susan
decided to have Mary assessed to see if it was in fact possible. The assessment revealed that Mary
would be able to go on a short outing in the local area. Mother and daughter are very happy with that
outcome and Mary is very much looking forward to it.

After spending a lot of time researching better ways to run activities in aged care communities,
Susan was prompted her to move away from doing one activity at a time as it only meets the needs
of a small group. She's developed different clubs at Wynyard so that there’s more than one activity
happening at the same time. This gives residents choice and encourages the team away from a
task oriented program. Susan has found the Montessori framework to be a great inspiration as its
philosophy is to ‘make activities meaningful and engaging and have something for everyone’.

S Y N O V U M C A R E M A G A Z I N E