Four Seasons Health Care, the UK’s largest independent elderly care provider and a leader in dementia care, is partnering with Active Minds, award-winning specialists in designing activity products for people with dementia. They plan to collaborate to develop innovative new activity products. Four Seasons will also introduce a full suite of current Active Minds activity products into more than 300 of its care homes and will monitor how this improves the day to day experience for people living with dementia.
People living with dementia often face additional challenges when it comes to activities. Deterioration of cognitive, dexterity and visual abilities may mean regular activities products such as puzzles and games become too challenging and can cause frustration. The suite of Active Minds products specifically for people with dementia that Four Seasons is introducing into its Dementia Care Framework homes includes art activities, puzzles and games, reminiscence activities, sensory products, and exercise activities. They are designed to be enjoyable while helping to keep people interested, engaged and active.
Four Seasons Healthcare become the first major care group to implement researched evidence-based activity products at brand level across their homes.
Dr Claire Royston, Group Medical Director at Four Seasons Health Care, said: “With the right support the person with dementia can enjoy a good life experience and the effects of dementia progression may be slowed. That is what our Dementia Care Framework is designed to achieve. Activities can play an important part in giving people a good experience and making them happy, so the Active Minds specialist products are a good fit.”
Sam Thomson, Business Development Director at Active Minds, added: “We are delighted Four Seasons are partnering with us. Working together, Four Seasons and Active Minds will collaborate, bringing together our respective understanding of dementia care, to develop new activities products to benefit people in our care homes and more widely throughout the UK.” Four Seasons Health Care’s Dementia Care Framework is a unique step forward in the personalisation of care. It has purpose-designed technology to support care teams to audit each resident’s physical condition, clinical needs, dietary requirements as well as their psychological and emotional condition and their day to day experience, so that care can be adjusted to their changing needs. It is being rolled out to all Four Seasons homes as each one completes the training and accreditation process. Training in the new approach includes a simulated experience of dementia, with the sensory and cognitive impairments, difficulties with communicating, perplexity when performing simple tasks and the emotional effects that may follow to give care teams an understanding of the condition and an insight into the perspective of the person living with dementia.