BaptistCare Mid North Coast At Home team showcases strength, care and community during record-breaking floods

With memories of the devastating 2021 floods still fresh in everyone’s minds, there was a sense of déjà vu as authorities started to issue flood warnings. 

Harnessing their local knowledge and the deep connections they form with clients and their families, the BaptistCare Mid North Coast At Home team started contacting clients to provide care. 

“It didn’t matter that so many of us couldn’t get into the office because of flood waters, we all were on board to do what we could to continue to care for our clients,” said Florence Boyd, Mid North Coast Area Manager for BaptistCare At Home. 

“Many of our clients have lived in the area for decades and have never seen a flood like this, so it was important we were able to be there on the end of a phone to provide support, encouragement and care.” 

Every day, the BaptistCare Mid North Coast At Home team stayed in contact with all clients impacted by flood, even as they were evacuated to emergency centres or relocated to be with family away from the flood. 

“The team were amazing! All our clients were called daily to do welfare checks, to make sure they had the medication they needed and to ensure they were safe,” explained Florence.

“Our clinical team were able to talk clients through basic medical care, we were able to work with the NSW SES to not only evacuate some clients but to assist in getting essential medications to our clients who were safe but isolated.” 

“It was an incredible team effort that’s still going on now that we are in recovery, as a number of our clients are still displaced and likely to be out of their homes for a while,” explained Florence. 

Lorena Weaver, BaptistCare At Home Care Facilitator, has lived in Taree for 40 years and has never seen a flood like this one. 

When the flood waters cut off the town, she was one of the few BaptistCare team members who could visit clients in their homes to assess their needs, provide essential social connection and ensure their safety.

“One of our clients stayed in their home with no electricity for five days, and when I went to see her, she said the thing she was missing most was a cup of tea,” explained Lorena. 

“So I bought her down a thermos of water to make tea, as well as soup and casserole and whatever else she needed.” 

Lorena coordinates the BaptistCare Taree Social Club, or Blue Gum Cottage.

While it was closed during the floods, as the water receded, it quickly became a spot that BaptistCare clients and the community could gather for essential things like taking a shower or doing some washing, or just to sit and debrief with friends and neighbours. 

“We had clients turning up who had lost everything,” said Lorena. 

“So after they were able to get into their homes and salvage some of their things like clothing or sheets or towels, we were getting them to drop them back here to the cottage and we were washing them and putting them through the dryer so then they have a basked of clean stuff to take away with them.”

“Before we opened fully, we would invite small groups of clients to come into the cottage and have a cuppa or some soup and a crusty roll and just talk amongst themselves about what they’ve been through, which was really valuable,” she said. 

As the clean up continues across the Mid North Coast, BaptistCare Blue Gum Cottage is finding its new normal. 

The delayed country and western themed week was able to run across the first week of June and BaptistCare clients and staff are re-finding their routines, but Lorena said it doesn’t quite feel the same. 

“Everyone is very subdued and very quiet because it’s clear when you’re out and about in the community that there’s still so far to go to recover from what’s happened,” she said. 

“But our goal is to try and put some smiles on people’s faces, bring our community into this beautiful, safe space, and all look to the better times that are coming ahead.”