SPECIALIST FACILITIES


Each bedroom will have a different colour theme. Long-term residents will ‘have a pretty free hand’ in how they decorate their room.


Lindsey Bratton added: “In the four years since we opened Dales House we have learned a great deal about how outstanding residential and respite care for individuals with PMLD should look, and gained a reputation for the quality of our care locally. I think the disabled community, and particularly the PMLD community, are significantly under-represented.”


A lack of appropriate facilities Mary-Jane Hoyle added: “Traditionally, many such individuals have been looked after in facilities such as learning disability units. With the Mental Health Act and the Community Care Act, however, many such facilities have closed down. Those that remain generally admit people for an assessment and treatment period, rather than long-term care. The individuals may then simply be returned home, but this in itself is often not a long-term solution, as I myself know. I am currently 45, and my daughter is 14. Am I going to be able do what I currently do – lifting, cleaning, and feeding her – when I’m 65? Those with PMLD are physically, as well as emotionally, difficult to care for, so as parents age they are less able to meet their children’s physical needs. As a social worker I regularly encountered people who had been caring for someone with PMLD without any support for years, or had even hidden their young children away due to fears over of social stigma.


Carers’ heath suffered


“The parents’ or carers’ health had then suffered – sometimes to the point of them dying – leaving the PMLD patients with no access to support, or indeed any experience of seeking it.”


Lindsey Bratton endorsed these sentiments: “When I set up the company,” she said, “I came across people with PMLD in their 30s with by then quite complex needs, who, from leaving school, had had no support. When such individuals leave a special school without a smooth transition into adult services, and are not referred over, they may end up without a physician, nurse, or occupational therapist. I came


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across many families that had simply been ‘lost in the system’ – extremely isolating for both the person in need of care and support and their family. Our philosophy is that just because someone has a disability, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a full life.” Mary-Jane Hoyle said: “Undertaking the re-design at Fossdale House and Langdale House has been a bit of a learning process for Alex Caruso, since much of his previous experience has been in the design of more ‘mainstream’ acute and mental health facilities. As a result, on occasions we had to tell him that a proposed feature was too ‘clinical’. For example, at one stage he proposed putting vision panels into the bedroom doors, but we had to remind him that this is not a hospital, and that the residents need some privacy, particularly within their bedrooms.


User input


“We are also always keen to get service- user input. Before opening Dales House, for example, all the rooms were painted in a slightly plain cream colour. However, as the members moved in, we asked about their design preferences. Consequently we now have one room at the Hull facility decorated with ‘Marvel’ wallpaper, another full of butterflies, and a third decked out with ‘Super Mario’ wallpaper. At Fossdale and Langdale House, each bedroom will have a different colour theme. Residents who decide to make one of the buildings their home will, though, have a pretty free hand in how they decorate their bedroom.”


The architect’s view


To get the architectural ‘angle’ on the internal ‘refurb’ which has transformed the buildings to suit the new user group, I met a day later with architect and MD at ACA, Alex Caruso. He told me: “The wider site on which Fossdale House and Langdale stand was the former location of the Huntercombe mental health facility. There remain a number of pretty recently built buildings there now vacant, which, prior to the site’s closure in June 2015, accommodated mental healthcare service-users with a range of mental illness. As multidisciplinary


architects we often get involved early on in healthcare projects to identify whether a refurbishment or a new-build scheme is the best solution. On the Market Weighton project we felt a refurbishment made the most practical sense.


Key criteria previously overlooked “One of the reasons that Lindsey and the Westwood Care Group approached us for our input and expertise,” Alex Caruso explained, “was that when Dales House was converted, a number of criteria key to the intended user group – from the size of the doors to incorporating low-maintenance and robust finishes – were overlooked. We thus considered all the key elements necessary to effectively convert the interior to make it fit-for-purpose for residents with PMLD, and devised a strategy for the internal colours, fittings, special equipment, and maintenance requirements. We have adopted a similar approach for the refurbishment and adapted layout here in in Market Weighton. Here the key elements have included wider doors for enhanced wheelchair access, adapted, more accessible, room layouts, a full colour and signage/patient information strategy, installation of a lift, and the incorporation of equipment including an adapted spa bath in the communal bathroom, and full 360 degree access hoists in all bedrooms.


Understanding users’ needs “Our considerations were largely,” he explained, “around understanding the users’ access requirements, and whether, for example, they needed access to both sides of the bed. The hoists, from LMB, are one of the most important features. The internal refurbishment has also seen all the existing doors – 800 mm wide, and thus not conducive to wheelchair access – replaced with wider doors. We have also incorporated a new ADL kitchen with wider access, which will allow residents and staff to eat together in a more domestic environment. There is an entirely new colour strategy to make the living environment bright and homely.” This, Alex Caruso explained, has seen each


JULY 2019 | THE NETWORK


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