Care home turns back the clock to treat dementia
WITH its cobbled streets, an old-style barber’s, a toy shop, post office and vintage cars, visitors might think they had walked on to an early set of Coronation Street.
This “memory lane” is no soap opera but an eye-catching initiative from the latest in dementia-friendly care homes which opened yesterday.
Owners Danny and Damien Holt said: “The purpose of our memory lane is to provide an attractive and interesting destination for the people we care for, offering reminiscence therapy to improve the psychological wellbeing and quality of life for our residents.”
The Five Rise Nursing Home in Bingley, West Yorks, which has 67-bedrooms and cost £6million to build – even has its own transport hub.
“Situated in the entrance of our home is Bingley’s bus stop, showcasing maps and popular routes in and around Bingley,” the twin brothers added.
“A common effect of dementia is the short-term memory becoming the frailest and the long-term memory being unaffected.
“Often the person will regress back to their 20s and 30s, leaving them with an insatiable desire to organise homes, jobs and to-do lists.
“A need to ‘be somewhere’ urgently whether that is picking their children up from school or needing to be home to visit their mother.
“The bus stop works by allowing the person to sit and wait for their trip home before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.
“Residents can sit freely at the bus stop, feeling a sense of purpose. Also care staff can use this as a therapeutic tool in distracting the person until their anxieties are eliminated.”
Meanwhile residents enjoy a “past” in which everything is authentic – from tins of Colman’s mustard on the shelves of the grocer’s to its till displaying old-style currency.
“People with advanced dementia have very complex needs and we know how vital it is to provide plenty of mental stimulation in a safe environment,” they added.
But such care does not come cheap. Fees start at £700 a week, rising to £950.
The Holt twins, who trained as psychiatric nurses, grew up in a residential care home run by their father Brendan.
They already run nearby Glen House Nursing Home in Baildon, West Yorks, which has a sweet shop and walls lined with images of yesteryear.
They say their venture has already created nearly 80 jobs.
IT’S KNOWN as “reminiscence therapy” whereby those suffering from dementia are placed in a physical environment which mimics the past, triggering long-term memories and offering both reassurance and mental stimulation. There are cobbled streets, an old-style grocery store and period cars. There is even a bus stop. The setting is the Five Rise Nursing Home in Bingley, West Yorkshire.
There is no cure for dementia but with imagination and compassion schemes such as this can do so much to help sufferers and their families.
However care of this quality comes at a cost. Such schemes are wonderful and life enhancing but we are still no nearer to finding an answer to the problem of how we fund social care for the elderly in the coming years.