Reimagining carejudyandelsa

Rona J. Karasik and Judy Berry explain how investing heavily in upfront costs is paying dividends for a US care home - by offering better support for people with dementia before problems develop.

Where do you go when no one else will take you? Imagine a woman with dementia who has been asked to leave not one or two but 12 care facilities -with each facility declaring that it was not able to cope with her 'behaviours'. Imagine her daughter, at a loss for what to do next.

Back then, in the 1990s, there were no good answers for me (Judy) and my mother, who was in precisely this _painful predicament, but that is no longer the case in Central Minnesota in the United States. Now, there is Lakeview Ranch - a pair of small, rural specialist dementia care homes that focus on caring for people with dementia-related behavioural' challenges'. In total, thirty people live in the two houses: 14 in Darwin House and 16 at Dassel House. I established Lakeview Ranch in 1999 and, although it was too late to help my mother, my experience of supporting her was my main motivation for developing a new model of care.

 

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Blue Flower

Judy Berry

Winner - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders Award