Author(s): Koornneef, E.
Department: St. John of God Hospitaller Services
Keywords: Retirement, Elderly, Menni Services
Reported: Frontline, 43, 9, P18
(29 Jul 2009)
In
1995 St John of God Menni Services identified a growing need among a
number of people who avail of the service. The number of elderly people
availing of the service had grown quite significantly as a result of an
improved life expectancy and because many of these service users age
prematurely. Especially in the Enterprise Centres, staff noticed that
some service users began to ‘slow down’ and a number of them were
unable to keep up with the work they used to enjoy and excel in. These
people had two things in common: they were all between 50 and 62 years
of age and they had all been with the service for more than twenty
years. A number of months were spent discussing, reviewing and trying
to bring some structure to the various alternative programmes that
could assist these people. Eventually the pre-retirement project was
launched in 1996. It builds on the strengths of the existing
relationships and prepares the participants for their retirement. This
article is an overview of its history, current developments and the
future requirements.