Blueprint for improving dementia care set to open in Sandford

The village of Sandford in North Somerset, is soon to be home to an innovative new care facility, introducing a new approach and new template for improving the quality of care for people living with dementia.

The St Monica Trust, the Bristol charity dedicated to enhancing care, accommodation and support for older people, has invested millions of pounds in creating a new care service and building a specialist new living environment, one designed specifically to support the very individual needs of up to 70 older people living with dementia.

Part of a £27 million Trust development, The Russets is the third dedicated dementia facility to be opened by the St Monica Trust within the past four years, the other two operating as individual facilities within separate Trust care homes in Bristol, both accredited with CSCI ‘excellent’ ratings. However the design, scale and investment in this purpose-built facility have created a unique opportunity to achieve something quite different in the care of people living with dementia, including complex dementia.

Zara Ross is Head of Care at the St Monica Trust, responsible for taking this initiative forward. She explains, “Starting from a clean sheet, we have had a tremendous opportunity to rethink how we can provide the very best care and accommodation for people living with dementia. We’ve looked closely at how a living environment can be adapted to reduce anxiety amongst our residents and also to encourage mobility and independence. We’ve also examined every aspect of how we deliver our care to ensure that we are responding to our residents, supporting their very different, individual needs.”

Walking into The Russets, there are no long corridors, no uniforms or medical trolleys. Everything is designed as a home not an institution. Accommodation is provided in five adjacent bungalows, each one split into two, creating homely living environments
for communities of just 7-8 people. Each bungalow has a private entrance hall, quiet room, communal kitchen where residents are free to help prepare food if they wish, two dining areas and two sitting areas, each with a fireplace. Simple visual cues are an integral part of the design and decoration. They help residents identify their surroundings and encourage them to explore other places, neighbouring bungalows, the clubhouse or outside in the gardens. The layout, furniture, fittings and signage are all designed to make their purpose and function clear, to aid understanding, orientation and independence.

Adds Zara Ross, “It is well accepted that careful design of a building can help or hinder people with limited physical mobility. Well, we’ve taken this same approach, designing a place on a scale and in a manner that will help make our residents’ world more understandable and accessible, promoting well-being, self determination and choice.”

Working practices at the Russets are also set to break the mould with a commitment to helping residents live as much as possible as they would in their own homes. Traditional work schedules, like early morning cleaning rotas, have been binned. Residents who wake up at night will be reassured by staff also dressed in dressing gown and slippers.
Alongside this, the Trust has developed its own nationally accredited training specifically designed for staff caring for and working with people living with dementia. This is taught right across its 650 strong workforce to promote understanding at all possible levels of how best to communicate with and support people living with dementia.

The blueprint for The Russets comes from Australia where the Trust has investigated the success of an award-winning dementia care facility in Perth as a starting point for their development, but the new service also builds on the Trust’s experiences and insights into providing specialist dementia care in their own facilities in Bristol.

Penny Baugh has experienced some of these insights first hand. Her mum, Barbara, 89, is one of 30 people living with dementia and currently receiving specialist care with the St Monica Trust. After just four months since her mum’s arrival, Penny has already witnessed real improvements in her Mum’s quality of life, from living in a stress-free environment.

Explains Penny, “Mum finds life here very calm. She’s much less anxious because everything is led by the residents here. They choose exactly what they want to do and when they want to do it. If she wants porridge in the middle of the night she can have porridge in the middle of the night. Sometimes people with dementia can get very anxious when they are asked to do things they don’t want to. Everyone here is so unbelievably caring. They are so sweet to her and spend a lot of time talking to her about her life and what she would like to do. That’s important.”

Confirms Zara Ross, “Our experience shows just how much quality of life and wellbeing, even for people living with advanced stages of dementia, can be significantly improved with thoughtful support and a proactive approach to managing and reducing risk. What inspires us today is our absolute determination to take this forward and ensure that people living with dementia in the UK can have lives that are positive and fulfilled through an environment that reassures, enables freedom and provides an opportunity to explore and enjoy different environments and activities.”

The Russets is a specialist dementia care facility being completed adjacent to but separate from a new retirement care village also under construction by the Trust. The Russets will be open to take new residents from mid March 2009. Sandford Station retirement village with 108 individual, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, a restaurant, gym, swimming pool, croquet lawns and a pavilion will be completed in Autumn 2009.