Care homes will be replaced by luxury developments to keep pensioners independent for longer

Care homes will be replaced by luxury developments to keep pensioners independent for longer: Government will invest £76 million a year on putting spas and bistros into residential care

Developments allow people their own flats with sensors and video monitors
Scheme in Manchester is developing 135 flats with an onsite beauty salon
Bungalows are built with curved walls and no sharp edges for autism patients
Bedrooms are being put below ground level to reduce noise disturbance
Care minister says such initiatives are needed to reduce health system pressure

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Care homes will be replaced by luxury developments to keep pensioners independent for longer, ministers have announced.

The Government will invest £76 million annually for the next three years on putting spas, hairdressers and beauty salons in homes specially designed for those who are frail, elderly or disabled.

These luxury developments will allow elderly people to have their own flats, but with sensors and video monitors to track the most vulnerable.

A scheme in Manchester is developing 135 flats for elderly people with an onsite spa, beauty salon and bistro. Across the UK, 3,300 specially designed new homes have been built so far.

Such properties include bungalows with curved walls and no sharp edges for autism patients, as well as bedrooms being built below ground level to reduce noise disturbances in Bicester.

Care homes will be replaced by luxury developments, ministers have announced (stock)

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DO MEN MAKE AS GOOD CARERS AS WOMEN?

Elderly men make just as good carers as women, research suggested in August 2018.

Older males spend the same amount of time looking after their ill spouses as females do, a study found.

Yet young men are not as caring towards their unwell partners as women are, which may be due to them having less time to run errands or do housework due to work commitments compared to their retired counterparts, according to the researchers.

The scientists claim their findings are important due to people living longer and therefore requiring greater levels of care.

Study author Dr Laura Langner, from the University of Oxford, said: ‘With the gender gap in life expectancy closing, and children becoming less available to care for their parents, it is likely that many more men will be called upon to care for their partners.

‘Our findings at least suggest that women won’t have to worry that their partners are not up to the job of caring for them’.

The researchers analysed 538 couples from Germany with an average age of 69.

One member of each couple required care from their spouse.

The scientists assessed how many hours the caregivers spent looking after their partners, whether that be responding to their physical needs, running errands or doing housework.

‘Communities likes these can improve quality of life’

According to care minister Caroline Dinenage older people often end up in hospitals and residential care when they could have remained at home for longer.

She believes initiatives like the above are necessary to respond to people’s ‘ever-evolving health needs’.

Ms Dinenage told The Telegraph: ‘Communities likes these can improve quality of life, help more people live in the community for longer and keep the pressure off our health and social care system – something we all want to see.

‘There are still far, far too many people living in substandard accommodation, faced with stairs they can no longer climb or cupboards beyond their reach.

‘This is not the quality of life we would want for our own mums or dads – or indeed ourselves.’

In London, homes are being built for adults with learning disabilities, which include communal areas and around-the-clock staff.

The Government’s announcement comes alongside NHS plans to embed smart technology into at-risk people’s homes.

Known as the Healthy Towns project, the NHS is working with developers to allow remote monitoring of people with health conditions, with results being sent directly to GPs and hospitals.

Movement sensors and other smart technology in the new builds will be linked to a tablet computer, with health tips flashing up on a screen if a person’s activity levels fall.

Training care workers could prevent 20,000 deaths from dementia a year

This comes after research released last month suggested that additional dementia training for care home staff could save the lives of up to 20,000 people a year across Britain.

Experts from Exeter University calculated that providing proper training for care assistants would cost just £4,500 for every life saved.

Assistants in Britain’s 28,000 care homes usually require no formal training, with doctors saying any training that is available is not based on any evidence that it actually works.

Some 70 per cent of the people in residential care homes have dementia, around 300,000 people, who have distinct special needs.

Yet the vast majority of such patients are over-medicated and left for hours at a time without any human interaction at all, with experts warning the average patient only talks to another person for two minutes every six hours.

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