Member Article

£237k work on care home to start

Work has started on a £237,000 project to improve a Teesside care home.

Government cash will be spent on improving the lives of people with dementia, and those that care for them, at Brookfield Care Home in Lazenby, near Redcar.

Redcar and Cleveland Council bid for the public money on behalf of SLL Healthcare, which owns the home.

The scheme includes four new specially designed bedrooms and other improvements, including a refurbished lounge and a sensory garden.

On completion, the scheme will be evaluated by a health charity and it is hoped the findings will benefit people with dementia nationally.

Sheelagh Clarke, the council’s cabinet member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “Improving the physical environments used by people with dementia can make a real difference to the care and support they receive.

“Not only that, but with residential respite care planned and improved facilities for day users there is more support for the families of people with dementia.”

Funding comes from the Department of Health’s £50m Dementia Friendly Environments pot and is divided between 116 UK projects.

Half of the cash was made available to public sector social care departments in England to bid for local schemes.

Brookfield Care Home’s plans have been drawn up with help from dementia experts from Stirling University.

They include four en suite residential bedrooms, one of which will be used for respite care to give families and carers a break from their responsibilities.

In addition, people with dementia will be able to visit the care home on a daily basis to use the refurbished lounge and sensory rooms.

Other work in the scheme includes an arts and crafts room, a memory area, a specially designed calming bathroom and a salon for visiting hairdressers

Externally, the gardens will be redesigned with more seating and sensory equipment, including wind chimes and waterfalls.

Convenient parking will be created for the care home’s mini bus.

Steve Metcalf from SSL Healthcare Ltd, said: “Our care home operations are constantly under review in order to improve the quality of our elderly care services.

“These reviews identified the need to extend the services we offer by including quality dementia care to our organisation within the Cleveland area.

“Subsequently SSL Healthcare Ltd acquired Brookfield Care Home in 2012.

“We are therefore delighted to have been included in this Government dementia initiative which has allowed us to work with some of the leading dementia experts in order to significantly enhance the facilities and services at Brookfield Care Home.

“We look forward to working with Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council over the next few months in order to create additional dementia facilities for Redcar and Cleveland.”

Building work and alterations will take place between now and March 2014.

All of the finished Government schemes will be evaluated by the King’s Fund, a London based charity aimed at improving the country’s health system.

The organisation will assess the impact of the redesign and it is hoped that other care homes will be able to benefit from the findings.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .