All hands on deck
In January 2020, bushfires ravaged the NSW South Coast. With the largest aged care presence in the region, IRT faced a catastrophic bushfire threat across seven sites. In this series of stories, we celebrate the courage, resilience and leadership of our employees, who kept our centres operating and our residents safe.
Jenny Rose works in the housekeeping team at IRT Dalmeny. She has been with IRT for 24 years. When IRT Dalmeny residents were evacuated on Friday January 3, it was all hands on deck and Jenny was there to help.
Jenny Rose: “It was full steam ahead. I’m not a care worker but on that day I did everything the care workers do. I did about three 13 or 14 hour shifts at Estia Health Dalmeny where our residents evacuated to. I just focused on trying to keep them calm. I told them we’re having a camp out. We were having a singalong while we were loading them onto the buses. I said, ‘there will be no marshmallows cooking at this barbeque’ and then they just laughed. I wasn’t scared because we were all in it together.”
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