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Margaret Davison has dedicated her life to responding to the needs of others.

Her working life has been dedicated to the care of the elderly and disabled, and for the past 35 years Margaret has been an active volunteer within the Heathcote community.

Whenever somebody says ‘if only’ or ‘if only I knew someone who could’, Margaret finds a way to make it happen.

Margaret has now become a champion and a client/volunteer for a new program aimed at assisting older members of the community to maintain their functional independence and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

The program can provide participants with the means and motivation to shed those extra kilos, stop smoking, exercise or clean out the shed, or it can simply assist with joining a social, sporting or craft group, or having someone call in for a friendly chat.

For the 55-year-olds and over who have a desire to stay active and lead a healthy life style or who find themselves saying ‘if only’ or ‘if I only knew someone who would’ then this program is a must.

The program is part of a project being undertaken by Heathcote Health and funded by Health Workforce Australia, a federal initiative, and underscores the importance of volunteers as members of the health care team.

The project’s focus is on assisting older people in the community to remain healthy and active by building a better workforce capacity for early intervention in functional decline.

It is one of 26 projects being undertaken across Australia to tackle workforce shortages in the light of our ageing population and increased burden of chronic conditions.

The projects will look at a better skills mix across all the workers in a service and explore how they can work more efficiently as teams and across boundaries, which may have previously created blocks or gaps in services.

For information, phone Maureen or Jane at Heathcote Health on 54310923.