HC-One has opened its pilot specialist dementia care community (SDCC) in Preston, Lancashire.
Using a therapeutic approach, the service at Meadow Bank Care Home aims to revolutionise dementia support at the operator for people with complex needs.
As part of a restructure, which has included the sale of some of its care homes, HC-One is concentrating its resources on investing and refurbishing its settings as it attempts to meet evolving needs, including the growing demand for more complex care and dementia support through development of the SDCC as a service.
It has developed the model to better look after people who display distressed behaviour, focusing on welfare and wellbeing. The therapeutic care setting incorporates key elements, including small scale communities; piloting specialist roles and skill sets; on-going wrap around clinical support and advice; and encouraging the creation of a multi-disciplinary teams.
‘The difference between a standard residential dementia care setting and a specialist dementia unit is that the former asks “what” – what is wrong with this person, what can’t they do, what have they started to do – and our specialist dementia unit asks “why” – why is this person feeling this way, acting in this manner, experiencing life in this way? This approach better equips our specialist teams to work therapeutically with residents of the SDCC,’ said Graham Stokes, director of dementia care services at HC-One.
‘The SDCC will provide a model of care that ultimately gives people living with dementia the care they need and the life they want.’
The service at Meadow Bank will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. Residents will move on to more traditional nursing care as their dementia progresses.
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