Home gets £245,000 new look to help residents with dementia

[dutchman]

A Coventry care home has launched a dramatic new look to help residents with dementia.



Eric Williams House, a specialist centre in Whoberley, has been transformed from a dark and uninspiring facility to a modern ‘‘design-centric’’ centre with a £245,000 makeover.

Now a flagship facility for dementia friendly design, it is hoped Eric Williams will be a model for other care providers in the city to follow.

Carpets have been ripped out and walls painted vibrant new colours to help residents find their way around the centre in Brookside Avenue.

It also boasts themed communal areas to help jog residents’ memories with vintage artwork adorning the walls.

Other changes introduced in line with dementia-friendly principles of using contrasts of colour and clear signs include a new 50s-themed café and memory boxes outside residents’ rooms containing objects important to them such as photographs of family members.

Staff say the move away from the dark and grey home it was before work began in January is already having a positive effect on residents with fewer falls, improved appetites and fewer incidents of violent outbursts.

Coun Alison Gingell, Coventry City Council’s cabinet member for health and adult services, was impressed by what she saw.

“The thing that’s really important is quality of care and residents and their families are happy to be here, and the care that’s provided here is fantastic,” she told the Telegraph at the launch event.

“The main thing that’s struck me is that it’s much lighter and brighter.

“It feels like a pleasant place to be rather than a care home.”

She added: “Care of the elderly and people with dementia is something I feel passionately about. If we can’t look after our older people as a society, then there really is something wrong with us.”

The make-over was paid for with a £370,000 Department of Health capital funding grant, secured by Coventry City Council, to make environments more dementia friendly as the city aims to become an Age Friendly city.

Other centres to benefit from the cash are: Amber House, a private dementia residential care home, Barras Court, an Alzheimer’s Society day care centre, the Maymorn Resource Centre, a Coventry City Council day care centre and Sovereign House, a private dementia nursing home.