Design For Dementia

As Havelock Place, takes shape we’re always looking to provide the very best environment for those living with dementia. EveryDay Care & Support and Age UK North Tyneside have been involved in the design of this specialist housing development from it’s conception.

Site Image Havelock Place 6.11.2020

Aspirational Living

People living with dementia need well designed, beautiful buildings. We all expect this for ourselves and from our living accommodation. They also need buildings that are suitable which do not cause them unnecessary upset or confusion.

Understand dementia

To understand and achieve this we need to appreciate the impairments of dementia. As weel as how we can compensate for them as we would do for someone with mobility issues in a wheelchair for instance.

We need to acknowledge that everyone living with dementia is different in every possible way: different age, different degrees of impairment, different backgrounds and life experience, different physical and sensory impairments, different attitudes, different tastes and so on.

 Adapted Environments

People living with dementia have very specific needs. Their environments have to be adapted to fulfil those needs and aspirations. Whether designing homes, gardens or outdoor spaces for people living with dementia, there are certain rules that we consider.

 Create spaces for integration

It is healthy for people living with dementia to be integrated into their environment and relate to others. We encourage socialisation by designing spaces to invite people to interact and share time together.

Make customers and residents feel at home

Keeping a decorative style which people living with dementia are used to is going to help them. Their apartments or dwelling’s furniture and decoration must be comfortable for the customer.

Encourage and stimulate brain activity

Colours and objects are beneficial to stimulate the brain of a person living with dementia. It helps them as a guide to know where they are or where to go, and as a reference to identify what things are or what they mean. Stimulating their brain will help decrease their dementia symptoms and anxieties and slow down the degenerative process. Environments have to be calm and easy to digest to make them feel stable and relaxed.

Create open spaces

It is important, both for the person with the diagnosis and their carer, to be able to see each other from anywhere in their room. In order to feel comfortable, residents have to be able to process the whole environment that surrounds them.

Large rooms with big windows connected to open hallways are going to give them visual access to important objects and spaces. For caregivers, it is essential always to know where their loved one is and to be positioned comfortably to keep an eye on them.

 Create places for distraction

Whether indoors or outdoors, it is important that people living with dementia have a safe and unique space to distract themselves. A place where they can do simple activities like gardening, listening to music, sewing or knitting, or anything that they enjoy doing, but that they can identify and relate this particular places to a certain activity.

Havelock Place

EveryDay Homes’ new specialist dementia housing development is due to open in 2022. We can’t wait to be part of this beautiful and unique property.

EveryDay Care & Support will be providing the professional care service within it to meet the needs of those in North Tyneside who are living with dementia.

A message from our Chief Executive, Dawn McNally

Let me start by reminding you all what a fantastic job you have all done during the pandemic. I say that based on an excellent track record of controlling the virus and protecting customers, staff, and volunteers.

Staff absence remains stable. We’ve had no recorded customer deaths from C19 on our watch. When customers have returned from the hospital with C19 (the only time C19 has featured) into our Extra Care Housing Schemes, our care staff have managed to control the virus and support the customer back to good health.

Everyone one of you should be proud to be part of a fantastic organisation that has gone above and beyond to keep us all safe, an effort supported by each and every one of you.

Bradbury Centre HQ

The Bradbury Centre remains closed apart from authorised visits which need to be logged and approved via the Calendar and Managers.

Wellbeing Centres

The Wellbeing Centres have been pushed back into Phase 2 until further notice. We may find out more next week from North Tyneside Council who have arranged a meeting with all Day Service Providers. I know that part of the call will be to demonstrate how to use PPE effectively.

Please be mindful that whilst we have been well versed in the use of PPE throughout the pandemic, other providers have yet to embrace this brave new world.

Phase 2 means the centres remain closed and the staff and volunteers support customers at home.

Extra Care Housing

The Extra Care Housing Schemes are now open for visitors with new controls in place. We have insisted on additional controls being implemented this week, which include the Social Landlords taking responsibility for additional cleaning in communal areas including gardens.

We have asked all visitors to record their visit to allow us to track and trace in the event of someone showing signs of C19. All Visitors must wear a face mask at all times.

I would encourage care staff within the Schemes to be confident and challenge if they see anyone not following the new guidance and if necessary report it to your Team Leaders or Manager.

Dementia Connections

Betty Lucas, our Lead Admiral Nurse recently wrote an article for Dementia UK .

Our Dementia Connections Team has been extremely busy during the pandemic and report some quite harrowing stories. Where you can let people know that we have this service to support families and carers who are living with dementia.

Customer Consultation

Our teams across EveryDay and Age UK North Tyneside are currently carrying our a customer consultation exercise. We want to better understand how our customers would like to have their services deliered in the future and if they’d like to see any changes to service provision. We will be co-ordinating a response in the next few weeks which will inform our decision making process.

EveryDay Homes

The prestigious new housing development’s website lanched this week .