With nearly 30 years of experience offering dementia care in small cottages in NSW and Victoria, the Not For Profit provider has opened South Australia’s first dementia village in the Adelaide suburb of Daw Park.
With a focus on relationship-based care, the new $31 million 70-place dementia care village at the Repat Health Precinct has been delivered by HammondCare, in partnership with the Federal and State Government.
In the village, people living with dementia will live in small household cottages and help with daily tasks such as preparing meals in their own kitchens, encouraging the residents to participate.
Two of the cottages, each accommodating nine people, will support residents with high level needs under the Specialist Dementia Care Program, with one funded by the Commonwealth and the other by the State Government. The other cottages support people living with varying levels of care needs.
HammondCare Daw Park is built around a village green, with an onsite café, children’s playground, hairdresser, general store, and older person’s exercise park. It was built by Adelaide-based Mossop Constructions with design by architects Bickerton Masters, of Surry Hills, Sydney, supported by local firm Swanbury Penglase.
HammondCare CEO Mike Baird opened HammondCare Park together with SA Minister for Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton, chef and author Maggie Beer and carers advocate Jeni Aikman. HammondCare Board Chair Kok Kong Chan was also present.
HammondCare is recruiting 130 staff providing 24/7 registered nurse-led care, with trained and compassionate carers and specialist clinical support such as psychogeriatrics or geriatricians provided by SA Health.
