Wagga's Nurse Next Door is committed to making lives better

Wagga nurse Jonathon Richter and partner Kyle Stephen are bringing a fresh (and very pink!) approach to home health care in the Riverina.

The pair has launched the Riverina’s Nurse Next Door Home Care Services to help elderly residents and people living with a disability to continue living independently at home.

“I’ve worked here as a registered nurse for eight years and, although I did the best to care for my patients in the hospital, I just felt like it wasn’t quite enough,” said Jonathon.

“Having also worked as a registered nurse in the community for a time I found there was a lot more satisfaction in the role as there was that continuity of care and I was really able to help make lives better.”

With a core purpose of making lives better, Jonathon said this was an approach that matched his own desire to go beyond ‘tick and flick’ solutions.

“I have a very caring nature. It’s my calling and this core purpose just really resonated with me and I really wanted to bring these amazing services to our own community.”

With a growing percentage of the region’s population either elderly or living with a disability, home care is an increasingly popular option that both takes pressure off the hospital system and offers people more choice about the life they want to live.

“I think through COVID it really made people grasp that concept of staying in their own home, on their own terms, and receiving the care that they want in a place that they are comfortable, rather than being in unfamiliar surroundings with people wearing face masks and face shields and gowns,” Kyle said.

“You’re also able to build a relationship with the caregiver and they become almost like a family friend, rather than a transactional interaction.”

Jonathon explained that the aim was to enable their clients to maintain their independence, remain connected to their community and to keep living a full life.

“Something that sets us apart is our concept of ‘Making Lives Better’ through ‘Happier Ageing and Possibility’,” he said.

“So we work hard to find out what a person’s interests, passions and goals are and we work to make them happen.

“We ask, ‘What did you used to love to do that you no longer do?’ And then we find ways to get them to do those things again to live a fulfilling life.”

Jonathon said that the home care model offered particular benefits for smaller village communities in the regions where there are limited disability or aged care options.

“It can be really difficult for people as they get older in those small communities to leave because they know everyone there and it’s familiar,” he said.

“We have a client in a rural area outside Wagga whose functional mobility has declined recently, but he really wants to stay in his own home.

“By working with him, spending time with him and getting him out into the community, it has really made such a difference in his life in a short time.”

Kyle added that personalised home care can also relieve the burden on families.

“That client’s family is in Sydney and they wanted him to move back to be close to them where they thought he would have better access to care,” he said.

“But with the support he’s receiving in-home, it’s also giving them peace of mind just knowing that their family member’s getting the care and the support that they need and someone’s watching out for him as well.”

While Wagga’s Nurse Next Door Home Care Services has only recently launched, Jonathon said they had been overwhelmed by the response.

“There’s a real need for these sorts of services in this area and we do go above and beyond to really allow people to pursue their dream,” he said.

“We really want to give people that choice back to live in their own home and do those things that they love and be surrounded by the things that they love.”

You can find out more about Nurse Next Door here, and you won’t miss the hot pink car as it travels the Riverina!