We will continue the improvements we have made to the physical environment at Rose Lodge, based on recommendations made by Jackie Pool Associates to create a more therapeutic environment for the residents. Specifically we will make a number of investments which are listed here in order of priority , and the investments will be made broadly in order of priority and will be subject to financial performance throughout the year.

 

High Priority –  We will do these – they are essential to ongoing provision of care.

 

• We will complete the redecorating of any toilets and bathrooms that have not been already been redecorated to our new standard (continued from 2010/11 plan).
• We will convert our ‘Snoezelen’ room into a hairdressing and treatment room (continued from 2010/2011 plan).
• We will invest in a new boiler for the main house. While the system has been reliable, it is quite old and by moving the boiler upstairs this will give us an opportunity to free space in the food serving area. We will re-carpet all communal areas that were not re-carpeted last year. This will further help residents to move freely around the home.
• We will invest in a new fire alarm system that increases the number of fire zones, so helping to locate any fire more quickly.
• We will invest in a new Nursecall system. While not offering significant additional functionality over our exisiting system, we are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain spares for our existing system.
• We will redecorate the food service area.
• We will redecorate the outside of the building around the terrace area.

 

Medium Priority – We should do these, as they will benefit most if not all residents.

 

• We will re-decorate all communal areas that were not redecorated last year, paying particular attention to features that aid independent navigation, such as helpful colour schemes, themed wall decorations, and accessorising that helps residents understand the function of the rooms they are in, and provide a richer environment for residents to engage with.
• We will make our kitchen terrace available to our residents from the dining room, so enabling residents to help with hanging up laundry, growing herbs and flowers, recycling food waste, or just relax in an additional quiet space.
• We will reorganise our staff yard, hiding our recycling area from view of residents and visitors.

 

Low priority – We may do these as time and money allows:

 

• We will investigate moving  our front door to make it easier for people in wheelchairs to come in through the front door, and this also facilitates an en-suite for one of our bedrooms.
• We will install en-suite facilities where the existing room layout makes this possible, we estimate this will result in an additional 5-6 en-suite facilities
• The fitting of specialist dementia carpets in the lounge, dining room and some of the halls has been successful in that it has helped residents to move around the home more confidently and independently. We will re-carpet all communal areas that were not re-carpeted last year. We will use identical carpets as this will further help residents to move freely around the home. This work is best done once other renovation work is completed.
• We will investigate options to optimise our car parking space and ‘open up’ the approach to the home,
• We will investigate options for increasing the communal space, in particular to develop our day care service and increase the number of distinct spaces that residents can choose to be in. In addition to the beauty and therapy room and the kitchen terrace already mentioned, we will explore the option of building a conservatory over the terrace area that can be opened up in summer to create a feeling of being outside.