Aberlea Inc. is a brand new entity for the organisation formally known as The Abbeyfield Society (Mortlake Inc. which was formed in 1984 to address the need for aged care facilities in the (then) Mortlake Shire.
With strong support from the Municipality, church, community groups and service clubs, Abbeyfield Mortlake was able to make an application for capital funding to the Commonwealth Government under the Aged and Disabled Persons Homes Act.
A fifteen bed hostel was constructed at a cost of $892,000 with $386,000 assistance from the Commonwealth, and received the first residents in 1990. The community has supported two extensions, one in 2001 at a cost of $2.3 million and the other only recently in 2009, costing just over $2 million.
With the new extension, Aberlea now delivers a full range of residential care with eight dementia specific suites and ageing in place through the whole facility. The Aberlea Inc. is governed by a Board of nine persons drawn from the Mortlake and district community, and employs a Chief Executive Officer, a Nurse Care Manager and a large number of employees who work in the areas of – nursing, personal care attendants, cooking, domestic, maintenance and administrative roles.
The Aberlea Inc. facilities in Mortlake enable people to remain in the district, provide an employment base and maintains the threshold of community relationships and structures that keep a rural community economically and socially viable.
Aberlea Inc. fills a gap in community support services and residents and their families have expressed a high level of satisfaction with them.
