What Happens When You Let People With Dementia Live Normal Lives: The Small Home Model at Emmaus with Tracy Baker

What if dementia care was designed around everyday life instead of rosters, risk avoidance and locked doors? In Port Macquarie, a small aged care provider has built a full village for people living with dementia and after 18 months, the outcomes are forcing questions about how care is traditionally delivered. Emmaus lets people living with dementia cook their own meals, choose when they eat, gives them the freedom to wander through a village with a café, bus stop, green spaces and a perimeter fence that doesn’t feel like an intrusion on daily life. Today, Dane and Rose are speaking with Tracy Baker to find out what it’s been like to build and work within the small home model. Key moments: 00:00 - Why St Agnes decided to make her residential village into a real neighborhood 5:58 - What kind of impact does the setup have on their residents? 11:40 - What did Emmaus Village decide to forgo the rosters and give the residents more flexibility 14:45 - Where does the companion carer come into the Emmaus model 17:39 - Why Emmaus only has one companion carer per small house model 19:34 - The design and construction details that were required to make this vision possible 25:03 -  How does the small household model impact staffing from a recruitment workforce, culture, and even staff retention perspective? 28:50 - Is this small home model only for mobile residents?  33:03 - Why do they stand behind the small home model even when it’s tough 38:02 - Where do RNs sit in the Emmaus village? 39:10 - The benefits financially for a running a small model home 49:07 - How is the model going from a clinical perspective 18 months in? 56:58 - What Tracy wants the policymakers to change to help make improve the quality of life for Emmaus residents  — Visit www.thepurefoodco.com to hear more about how The Pure Food Co could help with your meal service. Connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast on Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-mitchell-763ba524 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rose-plater-0a111a129 https://www.linkedin.com/company/time-well-spent-podcast If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you’re starting to scope out your next project, get in touch with Paynters over at www.paynters.com.au