A picture paints a thousand words, so they say, and Mercyville volunteer Diane Price understands this adage more than most.
The Heathridge resident has been volunteering her time at Craigie-based Mercy Health residential home, Mercyville, for more than two years, during which time she has catalogued and sorted over 3,000 photographs of residents, past and present.
The project has particularly benefited seniors living with dementia, who may have some cognitive decline, but are able to remember and reminisce about friends in old photos, with the images often taking them on a trip down memory lane.
“I worked for Mercyville for over seven years as a night carer and, whenever I had some time in the evening, I would go through the many photos that were often not labelled or in order,” says Ms Price, who is also a keen scrapbooker.
“I started showing the photos to residents and realised how much they enjoyed reminiscing about various events, like the St Patrick’s Day gatherings that are organised at the home, as well as family days and visits from local schoolchildren and, when I retired, I decided to volunteer my time to get all of the photo albums up-to-date, and all the people in the images labelled.
“Mercyville is a real home for the residents, and I think every home should have photo albums, so I felt this was the perfect way for me to volunteer.”
Mercy Health WA State Manager, Anita Ghose, said Mercy Health was extremely appreciative of its wonderful volunteers, like Diane.
“We have an incredible group of dedicated volunteers of all ages who help make Mercy Health the real community it is, and we can’t thank them enough for their support,” she says.
“National Volunteer Week is a great opportunity to reflect on the generosity of our volunteers, who give their time so selflessly to help our residents in so many meaningful ways.”
Mercy Health is a Catholic, community, not-for-profit provider of care, founded by the Sisters of Mercy and grounded in a 2,000-year history of caring for those in need.
The organisation is a national service provider of health and aged care throughout Victoria, Southern New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
In Western Australia, the organisation cares for over 300 people across six residential homes, with 78 independent living units.