By Bridget Spinks
WEST AUSTRALIAN State Minister for Mental Health and Disability Services Helen Morton visited the Emmaus Community in Queens Park on 4 May to present a Lotterywest grant for $134,103 to the Community.
The Emmaus Community is a Catholic organisation, providing long-term, independent community living for those with mental illness in group housing accommodation in Bentley and Queens Park.
The grant will go towards buying and fitting solar panels on five houses, putting reticulation through four houses and buying a steam cleaner and other small household items.
It is the second Lotterywest grant the Emmaus Community has received.
The first grant came in 2009 and bought furnishings for the homes’ bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas. It was also used to buy items such as fridges, couches, beds, pillows and doonas.
Allen Archer founded Emmaus in 1996 and has since lived and worked in the community with permission from Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey, an Emmaus Community patron. Now registered as a charitable organisation and functioning autonomously, the Emmaus Community provides housing and support for 39 residents from as young as 21 up to the age of 85 who live together in the Community’s eight houses.
Petra Drury, who has been living at Emmaus for three and a half years, said the Community is “excellent” and that she enjoys the company.
“A lot of people with mental illness find that when they’re by themselves they get worse, so having people around really helps,” she said.
Patricia Gressieux has been the coordinator of the residents’ daily needs for nearly four years. It’s as if Patricia has two families.
As well as caring for own family – her husband and two teenage children – she also cares for the residents “like how a family lives” she said.
She takes care of the residents by helping them with shopping, arranging doctor’s appointments or reminding them to go to an appointment with the psychiatrist.
It’s not a job but rather a vocation, she said at the event.
“Some of [the residents] we take shopping because some find it stressful; we get it all done for them and give them a hand,” she said. “It’s about seeing that they have a comfortable day.”
She said the grant is exciting because it will help give community residents an even-better quality of life.