Orpington to get the best of dementia care as work starts on a new home for older people

Home news

Oct 18, 2011

The new home is scheduled to open in early 2013. It will feature the latest innovations in residential care for elderly people, with specialist services for those with dementia, and is expected to create around 80 jobs.

As the leading independent health and social care company, Care UK provides residential and nursing care for more than 3,500 people in 60 homes across the country. Its development team has worked with pioneers in the field of dementia to ensure that its care homes provide quality environments with a family atmosphere, and that they have the additional services and expertise to enable people with dementia to stay independent, active and engaged.

The Orpington home will have a community feel featuring a shop, hairdressing salon, café and library, all set around an indoor village green. There will also be a number of quiet and peaceful areas, both indoors and in the grounds, while the activities room and cinema will offer plenty to keep residents entertained.

Residents in Care UK homes across the country have set up their own gardening clubs and several have won awards. With this in mind, each of the ground floor rooms at the Orpington home will open onto a patio. Staff will help and encourage residents to personalise their gardens with easily accessible plant-pots and flower-beds.

The landscaped grounds will also feature a sensory and herbal garden, a water feature and special planting to attract butterflies and other insects.

The number of people with dementia is set to double in the next 30 years. Many areas struggle to provide the high quality specialist services that can enrich the lives of people with dementia and their families.

Care UK’s Operational Projects Director, Lynda Appleby, said: “We are committed to addressing this gap, and have been working on both the design of our new care homes and our service delivery to ensure that we are continually innovating to meet the needs of our residents.

“Care UK is passionately committed to improving the levels of care received by people with dementia. We have developed an innovative new way of training our staff so that, by getting a taste of what it is like to live with dementia, the care they provide in our homes is even more respectful and compassionate.

“We have been caring for people in our homes for almost 30 years – that experience, and our passion for quality, means more than 96 per cent of our homes are independently rated as being good or excellent and our specialist dementia training has taken us to the finals of the upcoming Nursing Times Awards.”

The Orpington home is one of 30 new homes Care UK plans to build over the next five years to provide high quality care for older people.