11-May-2018
Gloria Hunniford was the guest of honour at a special event on 11 May at 6.30 pm at Grosvenor Hall to announce the launch of Belfast Central Mission's (BCM) new flagship project, Copelands Dementia, Nursing and Residential Care between Donaghadee and Millisle.
Gloria graciously gave of her time to support BCM and share her experience of having a sibling, Lena, with dementia. She told us:
“She would do things absent-mindedly like leaving the gas on, leaving the water running all the time or leaving the front door open, or worse trying to get out in the middle of the night.
Sometimes we deal with it incorrectly—we don’t understand so everybody has to learn in a way how to deal with dementia.”
Gloria is backing Copelands to support patients with the condition in Northern Ireland.
Guests at the event were informed of the latest updates and treated to an audio visual walkthrough of the new facility.
Nicky Conway, Head of Development at BCM, shared:
“After years of planning I am delighted that Copelands is now coming close to fruition. This is a flagship project for BCM and one which we believe will be market leading in both its care model and design.
Copelands is based on the Household Model of Care, a model first developed in America which aims to break down the traditional care home into familial households of 10 residents. Each household has its own front door, domestic style kitchen and dining room, living room and the cosy spaces found in any home.
Each household is really like a large house and our aim is to create as home-like an environment as possible. Overall the focus is on person-centred care and giving residents more choice about how they spend their day. We are also planning to provide a new volunteer role of home-maker in each household who will engage residents in meaningful activities such as cooking, baking and housework.
Andrea Selby, Manager of Kirk House, described the model of care that will be implemented in Copelands and invited residents from Kirk House, (which has a specialist dementia wing, ‘Memory Lane’) to share their own experience of living in care. They described their initial anxiety of moving in, to their relief and joy at how welcome they felt and the great difference it has made to their lives.
The evening was a huge success! As Gloria stated:
“It’s a great concept and I think it really brings us closer to having an environment in the latter part of your life that is more like home. If you can create that kind of environment, I think that’s very exciting.”
