Our staff are committed to helping our clients live their best lives possible, and at our Specialist Dementia Care Program (SDCP) at The Village, getting to know a client deeply is at the core of what the team does every day.
Brightwater Dementia Specialist Liz Higham said the approach to dementia care at Brightwater is focused on understanding each client and getting to know them.
The model of care is all about well-trained and empowered staff getting to know and understand each client deeply. It’s about taking the clients’ abilities and preferences to develop a care plan for them that is specialised and working with their representatives as partners in care to develop individualised goals and everyone working together to help the client achieve those.
Our team take the time getting to know each of the clients, understanding their back stories and separating them and who they are as people from some of the behaviours that are coming out as part of their disease. Our specialised program is about not accepting those behaviours as a normal part of having dementia and working with our clients to try and alleviate those symptoms.
The SDCP focuses on stabilising and reducing a person’s symptoms of dementia over time, with the hope to transition them to a less intensive setting.
The program at Araluen House would not be possible without the dedication of the team at The Village. There are some truly special people who have chosen to work here and they’ve made such a difference to the lives of the clients and the clients’ families.
Multi Skilled Care Worker Josh Lane who has been with Brightwater for five years is just one of those people. Josh said he is very lucky to work with such a skilled team and form special connections with his clients.
I really enjoy helping people and I work with a great team. I feel very lucky.
This job is very special because it has a direct impact on other peoples’ lives. The clients I work with can benefit greatly from the work that I put in. It’s very rewarding.
There are some great personalities of the clients that we look after and I enjoy getting to know them – they are all very unique. Being able to establish a relationship with them has been fantastic.
Celebrating one year of the SDCP at The Village, the program has already shown enormous success, with four clients successfully transitioning out of the program into less intensive care settings, and three more on a pathway to being discharged. The small scale program looks after up to eight clients at any given time.
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