Woodlands Care Group is welcoming residents to its Woodlands Care Home, with a vision to offer specialised dementia care within a themed, stimulating environment. The striking new purpose-built facility is divided into 4 areas, each independent, with lounge, kitchen and dining areas to enable a feeling of smaller family living, whilst being well equipped to assist with impairments that occur with old age and dementia.
Woodlands delivers a first class patient experience within its themed rooms – including ‘Beach room, Tea Room, Dressing room, Indoor Garden room, Boat room, Butterfly room and 'Howfen Snug’ with a focus on colour, stimulation therapies and objects that relate to memories. The ‘Beach room’, for example, has a holiday theme, stimulating memories of past family holidays, with areas of colour and objects with tactile and visual stimulus. The ‘Butterfly room’ has been designed to stimulate an individual in the palliative or frail stages of dementia. With a focus on walls and ceilings which are both bright and interesting, an individual in the stage of palliative dementia may be positioned in a lay back position, and Woodland’s interior specialists have considered how to add interest to the ceilings, using light nets with hanging butterflies and birds to create interest.
The 55-bed home has been specifically designed to provide comfortable, friendly and homely living, incorporating many important principles that support the care being provided. Each en-suite bedroom is equipped with specialist dementia furniture, including stylish Teal wardrobes with open hanging space to help residents recognise their own belongings and dressing tables with scoop front drawers.
According to home manager Janet Hope ‘‘We decided that the colours allowed us to mix and match and also think about infection control of materials for cleaning purposes. ‘Velvare’, the Teal dementia chair, with its orb armrests is helpful for mobilising residents and has been a great success. Everyone comments about the uniqueness of style and quality’.