St Vincent de Paul Home for the elderly will be rebranded and its image changed to that of a place where active aging takes place, Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana said this morning.

She said that the rebranding exercise will aim to steer away from the perception that the government-run home is an extension to Mater Dei Hospital where old people go to die.

The idea is to spread the message that it is a long-term care facility that offers active aging initiatives and that, residents there, go on living their lives while being cared for. A logo design competition was launched and closes on January 19. The designs will be posted on St Vincent de Paul’s Facebook page for public voting until January 27.

Dr Caruana said the home was undergoing extensive refurbishment works, training programmes and new services were introduced such as the customer care unit. There were even plans to set up a bocci club on the request of some residents.

Dr Caruana also added that changes were being carried out in the way new residents were admitted to ensure that only the high-dependency cases were accepted. At the moment 11 per cent of the 1,200 residents were fully independent people who went out during the day and returned there to sleep.

She said this would not be allowed in future admissions as low and medium dependency applicants would be sent to other homes that cater for such needs. She said that none of the 1,990 elderly people on the waiting list were urgent cases.