Positive About Dementia

At the St Monica Trust we are taking a positive approach to the care of people living with dementia, including complex dementia. Our specially designed and supportive dementia care facilities and services are inspired by thinking about the contribution people living with dementia can still make, if we can invest in ways to enable and promote their interests.

Through the specialist care environments we are creating we hope to empower and enable our residents to live to the best of their abilities, valuing our residents who live with dementia in a way that allows each individual and their  individual issues to influence how the environment should be, how their care should be and what their opportunities should be. We aim to facilitate connections for the people we care for, connections to their world, to other people, to opportunities and to parts of their life they may have lost.

On a practical level, this means enhancing certainty for people by giving them information about their world in away they can understand and that will help them.

• It means careful thought to ensure that the physical care environment designed to support people living with dementia doesn’t unintentionally cause frustration.
   
• It means living a pace of daily life that is led by residents, comes from residents and promotes ownership by residents, in a way that helps us all to live in the moment, enjoying and celebrating the small connections that happen everyday.
   
• It means developing a culture of care amongst staff who are creative and flexible, who know their residents well, know their history, their likes and dislikes, who can creatively offer alternatives, who value the choices that residents would make and then deliver on those choices.
   
• It means working with everyone connected with our residents, their families, relations and carers, in an honest way, focusing on the things that matter at a pace appropriate to each individual, supporting each and every individual in a way that shows they are valued and understood

It’s a journey for everyone involved with receiving or delivering dementia care at the St Monica Trust, working together, with a shared motivation, striving to bring back joy to people’s lives, to turn the worst fears of individuals into the very best hopes, the best they can possible be.
 

Latest news Dementia care and support at The Russets was recognised as the best in the UK this year, winning Best Dementia Care Facility in the UK Over-50s Housing Awards.		Purposeful activity Freedom to explore, choose and enjoy purposeful activity in a supported environment is a key reason why residents living with dementia are living their lives with independence, dignity and fulfillment.
Day in the life Share insights into the quality of life in residential care for people living with dementia, the experience of family and friends and the role of the dedicated teams delivering dementia care services and support.		Your choice Making the decision to put a relative into care is a difficult one for most people, perhaps even more so when it’s a relative living with dementia. How can we help?