HC-One Launches its First Specialist Dementia Care Community

HC-One has opened its new pilot Specialist Dementia Care Community (SDCC) in Meadow Bank Care Home, in Preston, Lancashire.  Pioneering a new therapeutic approach, this service is the first of its kind and is set to revolutionise dementia care at HC-One for people with complex needs.

HC-One has developed its SDCC proposition to better look after people who display distressed behaviour. Previously these people may have been prescribed anti-psychotic medication and might currently be inappropriately placed or needing 1:1 support to manage their behaviour.

The SDCC is an enhanced service which focuses on the welfare and wellbeing of people who are emotionally distressed by their dementia and therefore require specialist care and support. The SDCC is designed to provide a therapeutic care setting that incorporates several key elements:

• Small scale communities and low arousal interior design provide therapeutic living environments that feel homely and less clinical;
• Despite the complexity of their behaviour and the severity of their distress, the SDCC teams define the person by who they are, and not by the dementia they are living with;
• HC-One is breaking the mould of what a staffing structure should look like, piloting new specialist roles and skill sets, such as assistant psychologists, to work therapeutically with Residents, giving them a quality of life previously denied to them in traditional care settings;
• Bespoke and advanced Learning & Development delivery in partnership with Dementia Care Managers support this model;
• On-going wrap around clinical support and advice from the Dementia Care Team;
• The SDCC’s ‘traffic light’ care planning governs interventions at times of escalating distress;
• Encouraging the creation of a multi-disciplinary teams (MDT) who understand the SDCC’s ‘traffic light’ approach and the type of in-reach support that might be required;
• Robust pre-admission framework and criteria to support appropriate admissions to create a sustainable community.

The service at Meadow Bank will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.

Service delivery has been built around the needs of Residents to ensure the best care possible can be delivered. This includes the service being led by a Specialist Dementia Service Lead due to the complexity of need and specialist training being provided for Colleagues in positive approaches to behaviour, de-escalation interventions and safe restrictive practices.

Julie Rennie, the daughter of one of the first residents at the Meadow Bank Specialist Dementia Care Community, said: “I’ve noticed recently that my Dad is doing more… He gets involved with Karaoke and doing jobs around the home – the staff keep me updated as to how he is and what he is doing. I’m really happy that he has put a bit of weight on and is doing well. I can’t thank staff enough.” 

Graham Stokes, Director of Dementia Care Services at HC-One said: “I am delighted that our Specialist Dementia Care Community has opened at Meadow Bank Care Home. This really is a revolutionary moment in dementia care. 

“The difference between a standard Residential dementia care setting and a specialist dementia unit is that the former asks ‘what’ – what is wrong with this person, what can’t they do, what have they started to do – and our specialist dementia unit asks ‘why’ – why is this person feeling this way, acting in this manner, experiencing life in this way? This approach better equips our specialist teams to work therapeutically with Residents of the SDCC.

“The SDCC will provide a model of care that ultimately gives people living with dementia the care they need and the life they want.”