Home Group – health and wellbeing at the heart of everything we do
The UK population is rapidly changing. Communities are ageing, individuals are living longer with complex co-morbidities, disabilities and social problems. Expectations are also changing. People would rather adapt their home and have services brought to their home to enable them to continue to live independently.
Home Group’s strategy of building homes, independence and aspirations recognises the need for a more integrated approach to meeting individual’s health and social care needs. A good home is critical in supporting care, promoting wellbeing and enabling independence. We are looking at how the design of our buildings will support the concept of ‘ageing in place’, so that our homes can adapt to meet the changing needs of individuals.
We know that for people with dementia the design and layout of their home can have a significant impact on how they navigate and interact with the space around then. We are integrating the concept of Dementia ready design across much of our housing offer for older people to allow greater levels of independence and less reliance on formal care.
We know isolation and loneliness can have a significantly detrimental impact on health and wellbeing particularly for older people. Within our community wellbeing offer we are looking at how we support our customers to not only access and navigate the wider community space such as shops and community facilities but also to remain socially engaged and connected with the wider community, their friends and their family.
We’re putting improving the wellbeing of our customers at the heart of what we do. Many older people with dementia will require formal care and support to remain in their home environment. We have developed a new way of delivering care underpinned by our Living Independently Feeling Enabled Model (LIFE).
This has been designed to ensure our customers receive the right care through the right assessments and interventions, delivered by individuals who have the right training and aptitude in order to deliver the best care and support.
Assistive technology and digital solutions have an increasingly key role to play in enabling independence and wellbeing as well as supporting the management of complex heath needs. Whilst core assistive technology is routinely integrated into the design of our homes, we are looking to understand how we can maximise its use for our key customer groups including older people with dementia.
We are working in partnership with Northumbria University to bring together experts from both our organisations to support the development of our digital strategy through a twelve month research project. The aim of the project is to explore the potential for installing digital technology within the home to promote customer independence.
Over the next ten years we will be central to the building and development of the South Seaham Garden Village. This is a unique opportunity to look at building a 1,500 new home and community with health and wellbeing and the principles of ageing in place at its core. Innovation and research is at the heart of this opportunity which will see Home Group working alongside both health, social care and academic partners, as well as innovative technology companies to explore the art of the possible.
If you would like to learn more about Homegroup please visit www.homegroup.org.uk
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