LV Care Group, in partnership with Dandara, have applied for planning permission to build a Dementia Village and Care Hub on a redundant commercial site in St Saviour.
The development has been designed by local architects, Axis Mason, and utilises LV Care Group’s experience, as well as published best practice from expert sources such as Stirling University. It will be built by Dandara.
The Dementia Village aims to assist people in living well with dementia, maintaining a sense of community, and being able to continue with as many everyday tasks as possible, while also staying safe and having access to 24 hour care. In addition to the specially designed ‘households’, there will be a ‘High Street’ that includes a shop, hairdresser, pub, and café.
The village has been designed using the design audit tool developed by the Dementia Services Development Centre, at the University of Sterling, with the aspiration of achieving a gold standard in dementia design. Axis Mason also looked at other similar innovative design models, in order to produce their design proposals.
LV Care say that the Dementia Village and Care Hub, aspires to help residents have the experience an individual would have within their own home, preserving as much autonomy and daily routine as possible. It is designed to increase the interest in socialising and reduce the cognitive and physical decline, as well as anxiety.
The level of care provision varies in order to meet individual needs. The ground and first floors are independent living units, while the 2nd and 3rd floor, which is the Dementia Care Hub, provide a higher degree of care for those who need it.
Nick Bettany, CEO and co-founder of LV Care Group said: “We know that there is a real need in Jersey for further dementia care facilities, and critically that these should be enabling residents to live well with dementia.
“At LV, we are immensely pleased with the designs put forward to planning for this new development. They are maximising the quality of living for the residents and the surrounding community. It is a big investment by us into what we believe will be a premium care facility for our island.”
- The Dementia Village and Care Hub will provide 10 independent living house units with 70 bedrooms for dementia residents. There will also be 57 care hub bedrooms and 8 staff and visitor apartments.
- It will be adjacent to a planned residential development consisting of 18 one bedroom flats and 48 two bed flats.
- The Village is being built on a pocket of land in the ‘Built-up area’ to the east of Plat Douet Road. It currently consists of redundant buildings, many with asbestos, and there is evidence of vandalism and unsocial use of the land. It is adjacent to a school.
- Access roads, including to the Plat Douet School, will be improved. This includes an improved drop-off zone for the school, cyle and footpath, pedestrian crossings and an upgrade to the bus shelter. Road safety will be prioritised.
- Vehicle and cycle parking will be provided
- Landscaping has been maximised in order to ensure a high quality environment for all residents. This includes ground level, roof, and podium gardens. An addition of 58 trees on the site, hedging and green space, where currently there is only poor quality hard-standing. There is also provision for the residents to undertake their own gardening, plus a wildlife planting for pollinators area. Sparrow nesting terraces will be incorporated for an existing breeding colony, bat boxes, hedgehog houses, and bee blocks are also in the planning application to maximise integration with the natural environment.
- Energy and environmental considerations include photovoltaic arrays being positioned on the roof in order to feed back directly into the electricity grid. Plus green roofs to aid with storm water management.
