{"id":198668,"date":"2025-10-08T20:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198668\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:57:07","slug":"family-donates-1-7-million-to-transform-dementia-care-at-aged-care-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198668\/","title":{"rendered":"Family donates $1.7 million to transform dementia care at aged care facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local family has gifted an “unprecedented” private donation of $1.7 million to enhance the lives of residents living with dementia at an aged care facility in western Victoria.<\/p>\n

Eventide Homes in Stawell received the donation from members of the Mangle family from Halls Gap, who had previously contributed $50,000.<\/p>\n

Eventide Homes CEO Gary Simpson said the larger donation was made unexpectedly a year ago and revealed publicly last month.<\/p>\n

“It was just a wonderful surprise when at the end of a lunch [a member of the family] reached into his pocket and pulled out a cheque,” Mr Simpson said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never held a cheque for that amount of money in my life.”<\/p>\n

Mr Simpson said the reason behind the gift was unknown as the family did not have a member being cared for at the home.<\/p>\n

He confirmed the entire sum would be dedicated to improving the dementia care wing at the aged care facility.<\/p>\n

“The Mangle family has requested we spend the $1.7 million on bricks and mortar type projects for dementia \u2026 not a single dollar will go towards overheads or into general revenue,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Simpson said the goal was to modernise the dementia wing and create a facility that would set a new benchmark in aged care.<\/p>\n

Dementia is Australia’s leading cause of death<\/a><\/p>\n

Advocates warn the number of people with the condition could exceed 1 million without government intervention.<\/p>\n

“The generosity of the Mangle family will allow us to deliver an absolute state-of-the art dementia facility that we think a lot of other aged care providers will be envious of.”<\/p>\n

A national dementia design expert visited Eventide in August to advise on infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n

The redevelopment is expected to include fit-for-purpose living spaces tailored to the needs of residents with dementia.<\/p>\n

Northern Grampians Shire Mayor Karen Hyslop said the donation would have a lasting impact.<\/p>\n

“The generosity of the Mangle family will create a lasting positive impact that will be passed on to future generations; it will benefit our community for many years to come,” Cr Hyslop said.<\/p>\n

According to Dementia Australia, an estimated 293 people are living with dementia in the Northern Grampians Shire.<\/p>\n

Eventide currently cares for 15 residents with dementia, but Mr Simpson said that number was expected to grow.<\/p>\n

Dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.<\/p>\n

More than 425,000 Australians were estimated to be living with dementia in 2024, with projections suggesting that figure could exceed 1 million by 2065.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the Mangle family declined to comment on the donation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local family has gifted an “unprecedented” private donation of $1.7 million to enhance the lives of residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,9757,105255,97991,1420,124474,124475,137,1423],"class_list":["post-198668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dementia","tag-dementia-care","tag-donation","tag-elderly","tag-eventide","tag-halls-gap","tag-health","tag-seniors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}