Coalition distributes COVID care packs to help senior housing residents

Team members from Safer Hastings, Hastings District Council and Age Concern Hawke’s Bay with the COVID-19 wellness packs ready for delivery to senior housing residents.

More than 200 residents of Hastings District Council’s senior housing units have been stocked up with essentials to help get through COVID-19 thanks to the Safer Hastings coalition.

Hastings District Council is the lead agency of Safer Hastings, Haumarutia o Heretaunga, a coalition of 30 partners working together to keep people safe in the community, in the home, and on the roads and footpaths.

Within Safer Hastings, there is an Older Persons Focus Group that is always looking for ways to support the older community in the district, said Safer Hastings chairperson and Hastings councillor Eileen Lawson.

“We were considering putting together a grab-bag for them of essentials to have on hand in case of an emergency but then Age Concern, which is one of the coalition partners, suggested we put together COVID-19 wellness packs to distribute across our senior housing units.”

The teams got to work and prepared enough packs to go around the 220 units in council’s nine housing complexes.

The packs contained the likes of Rapid Antigen Tests, tissues, sanitiser, electrolytes, masks and throat lozenges.

Age Concern Hawke’s Bay manager Dairne Withers said they saw an opportunity to collaborate with other Safer Hastings partners to support the senior housing communities to be prepared for isolating.

“Working alongside our MSD partners for the community COVID response we recognised that empowering our senior housing communities to be prepared for isolating at home may provide a sense of confidence for them to continue accessing their community during this recent outbreak.

 “This was a great example of how the Safer Hastings coalition can respond to a community need and support some of our vulnerable community members.”

Members of council’s senior housing team joined Age Concern and others to deliver the packs recently, which were well received.

4 May 2022

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