Professor Graham Stokes, HC-One’s director of dementia & specialist service innovation, outlines the provider’s model for dementia care, and explains why the care sector must rethink what ‘dementia friendly’ design really means
The way we design care homes for people living with dementia has remained largely unchanged for decades. Many care environments still rely on outdated design principles developed pre-2000, with features that no longer meet the standard required for exemplary dementia care.
Today, residents are entering care homes with more advanced dementia than ever before. The cognitive and physical impairments they live with are more complex, and the support they need is more intensive. The number of people living in care homes expected to increase by 166 per cent to 667,000 by 2040, with 80 per cent of those living with severe dementia.
To address this rising challenge, the sector needs to rethink what 'dementia friendly' design really means. At HC-One, our commitment to this spans across all homes — for example many have undergone refurbishments incorporating carefully considered, low-arousal design, and our generation of new-build care homes are purpose-built, designed with current and future care needs in mind.
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