Anger has a a bad reputation, but anger can also be a powerful motivator.
The staff member rang me recently and she said I have an 83 year old woman living under a bridge.
The woman said to my worker in a trembly old 83 year old voice. If he could just get me a room for a couple of nights, I'll go back to the bridge. 83 years old.
I mean, these stories don't don't make your blood boil. There's something wrong, isn't it?
I mean, there has to be an element of controlled anger in my work. It has to be.
I started as a young social worker at an A homeless person's night shelter in Melbourne.
I saw acts of wanton kindness, but I saw a horrific scenes of brutality into all of that male stream.
I saw elderly, frail people who shouldn't have been in such an environment.
And so my whole effort was trying to get them out and into quality and secure housing where they had some level of security and and people cared about them.
Wintringham and works with people who society is abandoned.
They're often isolated and lonely and frightened so we feel that they should have access to good quality aged care.
First two years I was the only employee but it is now grown to be the largest provider of housing and aged care services for elderly homeless people.
Primarily it starts off with housing and social work services for people who are vulnerable through to full aged care services, whether it's firstly in the home, which is homes that we would either build or be public housing or then it goes to nursing homes.
Wintringham in fact has the first nursing home for homeless people in Australia and probably the first one in the world.
One of the inspiring things is to see elderly homeless people who arrive tail between their legs, frightened, timid and slowly opening up like a like a flower and and starting to learn to trust.
And then the crowning achievement is when they start to complain. That's that's such a wonderful experience.
When a homeless person looks at you and says the food's **** it means that they they know they're not going to get evicted.
They're not going to get punched for complaining. They are rejoining the human race. It's so exciting when that happens.
As a young social worker, Bryan Lipmann witnessed first-hand the appalling conditions in which many elderly homeless people were forced to live. Realising that existing aged care homes were not the answer, he founded Wintringham to provide a safe space where the elderly poor and homeless could live with dignity and respect.
Today, Wintringham supports 3,000 people with accommodation and home care services. At its core, the organisation retains the same values that Bryan instilled in the beginning – respect for the individual, social equality and the promise of ‘a home until stumps’.
Through his advocacy, Bryan revolutionised ideas about how to support marginalised elderly people in society by creating safe, long-term homes for thousands of people.
Bryan’s devotion to caring for those who do not fit into mainstream aged care epitomises the difference that one individual can make by improving the quality of life for others.
Learn more about positive ageing at health.gov.au/positive-ageing