Pioneering’ Orchard Care Homes Communities Visited by Care England Chief

The Chief Executive of Care England visited two of Orchard Care Homes’ Reconnect Communities and gave them high praise.

Professor Green OBE, who is also Independent Sector Dementia Champion for the Department of Health and Social Care, visited Middleton Park Lodge and Paisley Lodge Care Home, both in Leeds.

Professor Green spoke with great positivity about the Orchard’s Reconnect offering. The group’s specialist dementia care model, available in a number of their homes across the North of England and Midlands.

The visit started with a comprehensive tour of the facilities at both homes, where he met several residents living with dementia at the homes and praised the team for their exceptional efforts in providing meaningful, personalised activities based on the residents’ hobbies and passions from before their dementia diagnosis.

He met Tim, a car enthusiast from Middleton, who spent time with his carer, washing a car in the sunshine. Residents from Paisley proudly displayed some of the woodwork they had been crafting in the home’s workshop, as well as admiring some of the cake decorating happening at Middleton Lodge by resident bakers.

He said: “Orchard Care Homes has a clear focus on specialisation and is not averse to taking positive risks. This is what makes Orchard such a stand-out care provider. The services Orchard provides are so individual, it really shows how far ahead it is in the industry’.

Professor Green said Orchard has been pioneering and setting its own bar with evidence and data to prove the Reconnect model works.

He added: “It’s evident that Orchard sees the person and not the dementia diagnosis; the homes work with the person, their family and friends, and look at the individual and not the outcome and that is really rare.”

Hayden Knight, Chief Executive Officer at Orchard Care Homes, said:
“We were delighted to host Professor Green on Monday, and it was heartening that he acknowledged the efforts of all our colleagues across the homes to ensure that people living with dementia are being offered the best possible care – and that we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible to keep making their lives better.”