Healthcare Management Trust (HMT), the charity which provides health and social care while reinvesting any surplus income back into dementia care research, will be opening a specialist dementia care home in the village of Climping, near the seaside town of Littlehampton, West Sussex.
The HMT Littlehampton care home is described as a ‘pioneering innovation’ within the care industry, both in terms of its design and the care it offers. The care home is designed to feel less like a care home and more like a familiar home for residents.
Designed over two storeys, the home incorporates four separate wings with 16 bedrooms in each wing. The wings are split equally into two distinct households of eight bed ‘homes’, each with their own domestic kitchen, dining and day lounge spaces. The residents will live in small family ‘homes’ with others at a similar stage of dementia; important for reducing stress and helping in the socialisation for residents.
HMT’s research-led approach offers residents a holistic and ‘family’ approach to the physical and mental well-being of each resident. Members of each family, where possible, are involved in purposeful day-to-day domestic activities which provide social interactions, value and routine to their day. The preferences, quirks, history and personality traits of each individual are understood and valued by staff. As a result, staff forge genuine and long-lasting relationships with both the resident and their relatives.
Each unit features generous ensuite bedrooms, communal areas such as lounges, dining rooms, reading rooms, a garden lounge and terraces overlooking the landscaped and secure purpose-designed grounds for people with dementia and their visitors, together with ample car parking. Additional well-being facilities include a hair salon, café, shop and tea room.
The care home is situated in a quiet rural setting on the A259 Crookthorn Lane and is less than a mile from Climping Beach.
Highwood Group has started construction of the £10 million 64-bed specialist dementia care home, working in partnership with Hunters architects and developer Brackley Investments. HMT will occupy the completed development under a commercial lease.
Construction by Highwood is due to be completed in spring 2023, with a prospective opening date by HMT following a specialist fit-out in summer 2023.
HMT has previously funded around £1.6 million of research grants which look into frontotemporal dementia and fall prevention and personalised physical activity for people with dementia. It is currently funding research through several UK universities looking into cognitive studies, as well as the impact of music, social activities and nutrition upon the wellbeing of people with dementia.
Tony Barrett, Chief Executive at HMT, said ‘We provide care that gives back. Surplus funds generated through our work are reinvested in scientific research to serve the ageing population. As a result, HMT offers pioneering, research-led and “family home” focused care to our residents. We are proud to have expanded to a third site and look forward to benefiting local residents through investment, job creation and our residential care offer.’
James Wallace, Director at Hunters architects, said: “The development has been created using the well-established “household design principle” which uses the best practice principles set out in the University of Stirling, Dementia Services Design Centre’s Design Audit Tool to suit the specific needs of residents with dementia.”
Steve Matthews, Managing Director at Highwood Group, said: “We are delighted to have broken ground on this superb site near the coast. This is our thirty-ninth care and retirement scheme and it’s fantastic to be working with two new partners, HMT and Brackley Investments, on such a unique and carefully-designed dementia care home.”
David Brill, Director of Project Management at Brackley Investments, said: “We are delighted to be working with HMT on this development. Like HMT, we share in their passion for older persons’ care and our track record is care only.”
HMT was founded in 1985 and is a registered charity delivering not-for-profit health and social care within England and Wales. Over the years, HMT has grown to include two private hospitals in Grimsby and Swansea and two care homes – in West Wickham in Kent and Romsey, Hampshire – with the third opening in Climping, West Sussex.
Each of HMT’s care homes have specialist dementia care facilities whose design is informed by the HMT-funded research into improving the lives of those suffering from this group of conditions. The company also provides management support to charities, who together operate a further 450 elderly care beds.
