Hospitals and Care Homes to Receive Extra Dementia Funding

Published 20 October 2012.

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, has announced additional funding of £50 million for hospitals and care homes to help tailor their facilities for the needs of people with dementia. The funds will be made available to NHS trusts and local authorities who will work in partnership with care providers to improve care environments. All care providers will be required to sign up to the Dementia Care and Support Compact, committing them to providing excellent care for people with dementia and their families.

Hospitals and care homes that bid successfully for funds will be able to adapt rooms and communal spaces using design principles tested by The Kings Fund. Features such as large photos, hi-tech sensory rooms (stimulating light, smell and sound) and calming colour schemes have been shown to reduce anxiety and stress amongst people with dementia and make them feel safer.

Carefound is a specialist provider of home care and dementia care in North Yorkshire. Oliver Stirk, Director, commented: “There will be over 1 million people with dementia in the UK by 2020 and we face a huge challenge in improving the lives of people with the condition in the future. Locally, this challenge will be of great importance, particularly since 20% of people living in the Harrogate District are over the age of 65, compared to a national average of only 16%.”

“Today’s announcement of additional funding for hospitals and care homes is a positive step in seeking to improve environments in which people with dementia are cared for. Specially designed facilities can help improve the well-being of people with dementia by facilitating better person-centred care and reducing confusion and distress. It is hoped that we will see the benefits of this initiative in North Yorkshire.”

“However, this step alone will not be enough to meet the needs of people with dementia and it is important that efforts continue to remove the stigma attached to the condition, increase diagnosis rates and improve access to appropriate care and support services. A key part of this will be enabling people with dementia to remain in their own homes for longer. The Carefound home care team is already helping with this locally and recently announced its collaboration with the Contented Dementia Trustthrough which it is introducing and adopting their specialist approach to caring for people with dementia known as the SPECAL method.”

About Carefound:

Carefound is a provider of specialist home care and dementia care services to elderly people in North Yorkshire, enabling clients to continue to live independently in the comfort of their own home whilst maintaining the highest quality of life achievable. Services provided include basic help in the home,companionship, personal care, medication help, post-operative rehabilitation, respite care and specialist help such as dementia care and palliative care. The flexible service ranges from 1 hour to 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, including bank holidays, and can also encompass 24-hour live in care services.

Source: Department of Health, Carefound.