CARING for the elderly is a family affair for the Dillons.
The family have been running Second Avenue Aged Care Facility for more than 25 years after mum and managing director Jackie Dillon bought it.
They recently rebranded to Residency by Dillons Mt Lawley to coincide with some new interior refurbishments to the heritage listed building including new floor tiles, paint and wardrobes.
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READ NOWMs Dillon started working there as a nurse in 1988, then bought it in 1992 and expanded the capacity from 30 to 44 beds.
Her children Jessica Patil, now the director of corporate services and Timothy Dillon, now chief operating officer, spent their childhood years there.
Ms Patil’s husband Samvid also works for the family business.
“When I started here, Tim was four and Jess was six, and they just had a connection with the residents,” Ms Dillon said.
“They would have breakfast here before school at Perth College and it became part of their world.
“I think the most amazing thing for them was seeing somebody was 100 years old, which was very rare in 1989.”
Ms Dillon advised her children to get experience elsewhere before deciding to work at the facility.
“Tim studied hotel management and Jess went off to London to the Savoy Hotel,” she said.
“Tim always wanted to work here and I said you have to go and work somewhere else, you can’t finish school, come here and expect to be top of the pops.
“He worked in the laundry, the kitchen, did maintenance and people didn’t take him seriously enough because he was too young but he loved it and he is chief operating officer.”
Ms Dillon said she had seen many changes throughout the years in the industry and demands from clients.
“The major transformation for me in 30 years is – in 1988, we had people born in the late 1800s or early 1900s and they’d been through a couple of world wars; we don’t see that anymore,” she said.
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