The Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa currently has no rest home, leaving senior residents needing hospital-level or specialist care with no option but to leave the district – a situation local leaders are calling a crisis.
Age Concern estimates around 100 seniors in the wider Wairoa District qualify for residential care.
The town previously had a rest home operated by Heritage Lifecare, but it closed following damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023. Residents were relocated, and the facility has not reopened.
The closure has left families trying to manage increasingly complex care needs at home.
Tricia Cotton is caring for her 88-year-old father, Koroua, who lives with dementia, while also working full-time.
"Nights can be really tough," she said.
"You have to wake up in the middle of the night. You have to direct him to the toilet. If you don't, then he doesn't know where the bathroom is, and so his room becomes the bathroom."
Cotton said the family wants to keep their father close, but they were worried about what would happen if his condition worsened.
"I feel that if he goes down there, down the bay, that it's almost like he's sliding away from us," she said.
Others have already had to make that move.
Benita Tahuri gave up work to care for her elderly mother at home in Wairoa, but eventually needed specialist support.
Her mother is now living in a rest home in Havelock North, a more than two-hour drive away.
"She wanted to be home in her elderly years," she said. "Home is Wairoa. That's the heartbreaking thing."
Local iwi trust chief executive Lewis Ratapu said the lack of aged care services was placing pressure on families and the hospital system.
"Our elderly people, they've worked all their lives, they've contributed to this country through tax to their communities, and so they get to a stage where they should be expecting we should be looking after them," he said.
Ratapu said rural towns like Wairoa were often overlooked by private aged care providers.
"A lot of the bigger operators, they'll make their money in selling those villas and apartments and in all the extra services, so, in a place like Wairoa, we don't have a market like that."
He said the community had taken matters into their own hands, identifying land and securing an operator willing to establish a new rest home.
"We've identified the land for a new rest home. We've made our case to the government. I think we've got a strong case, because we have done it ourselves."
Mayor Craig Little said the impact on the community had been severe.
"We've had so many elderly suffering, families suffering."
He said he was "getting sick" of people coming here, "ticking a box" and leaving again.
"I've probably cut a couple of trees down with the paper I've used to write letters to ministers."
Across New Zealand, 67 rest homes have closed in the last decade.
Minister for Seniors Casey Costello said the current funding model for aged care was "not fit for purpose".
"The thing to understand is aged care is privately delivered and publicly funded, so we need viable businesses," she said.
"That's why we've started an aged care review."
SHARE ME