Creswick Nursing Home – Dementia friendly unit

This Creswick Nursing Home project was funded through the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund and includes:

• a new 12-bed dementia friendly unit, built around shared social spaces and a central courtyard
• ensuite bathrooms
• consolidation and centralisation of common areas and activity spaces
• upgrade of heating and cooling systems
• upgrade of mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and fire services.

The Creswick Nursing Home upgrade project aimed to achieve the following benefits:

Dementia friendly design

The new 12-bed unit incorporates best practice principles for dementia-specific care.

It features a cluster of rooms around a central courtyard that can be sealed off from the rest of the facility, allowing residents to circulate freely and safely.

The interiors include familiar domestic features to create a comforting, home-like environment. There are rooms for small groups to promote a sense of extended family. Discrete safety features support residents’ freedom while minimising risk.

The flexibility and variety of spaces provide a rich and complex environment adaptable to individual residents’ needs and offering residents choice in how much social interaction they have.

There are spaces where residents can socialise all together, in smaller groups, and in private. Instead of large single dining and lounge spaces, these areas will be broken up into smaller spaces. Residents are able to cluster into smaller friendship groups, socialise with family or simply sit on their own.

Private bedrooms with ensuites

Residents of the new 12-bed unit have private bedrooms with ensuites, allowing them dignity and independence.

The entry to the rooms have a deep threshold to help create the feeling of a front door. Residents are able to personalise their space so they feel at home.

Creating community

Rooms in the dementia friendly unit are clustered around shared social spaces, helping to create a sense of community. The social spaces look out onto the central courtyard. As well as providing points of conversation, the view helps simulate a home-like setting, creating the sense of looking out onto a backyard.

Access to gardens and landscaped areas

The large central courtyard provides two generous external seating areas, encouraging residents to spend time outdoors.

Established trees are planted for shade and raised wheelchair-accessible garden beds allow residents to garden. The courtyard includes plants that encourage bird life, create pleasant smells and give a sense of seasonal change.

Largest program of its kind

The $470 million Regional Health Infrastructure Fund, which includes the Aged Care Regional Health Infrastructure Fund, is the largest grant program of its kind in Victorian history. It enables rural and regional public health and residential aged care services to invest in modern infrastructure and equipment. This supports the services to continue to provide safe and efficient care to local communities.

Funding for this project was administered by the Victorian Health Building Authority through the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund.

The project was delivered by Central Highlands Rural Health in partnership with:

• Blight, Blight & Blight (architect)
• S J Weir (builder).