CHICKENS FIRST IN AS PIONEERING SOUTHPORT DEMENTIA CARE HOME MOVE STARTS.

BIRCH ABBEY

DEMENTIA CARE SERVICE

PRESS RELEASE

June 29, 2010.

CHICKENS FIRST IN AS PIONEERING SOUTHPORT DEMENTIA CARE HOME MOVE STARTS.

Photos and video available.

The big move is on as Phase One of the UK’s most advanced dementia care facility, the iPersonally Memory Centre at Birch Abbey, Southport, is completed – and the first in on Wednesday, June 30, will be a brood of chickens (watch video).

The £5 million Alexandra Road care home – which will provide a service to the whole of Merseyside - features a range of facilities, up to 60 beds, and an approach to dementia care not previously seen in the UK.

The Birch Abbey team will start to move clients from the old building to the new purpose-built facility during the last week in June 2010, and once everybody has been installed the original building will be demolished and replaced by a second new structure, providing more beds, plus offices and admin.

“The first residents will actually be several chickens – they’re an important part of our community, and a clear illustration of the approach we’ll be taking at the new Birch Abbey and which was pioneered and developed at the original Birch Abbey,” said Dan Lingard, chief executive.

“We may have technology and facilities never before seen in a UK dementia care home, but it is the pioneering approach – acknowledged and documented across the care sector - that makes us truly different.

“Getting people with dementia using their minds and muscles – even in seemingly small ways – can have a massively positive effect.

“We’re creating a ‘living sensory garden’ – the chickens draw residents out into the garden, they provide a talking point; what’s more, our patients collect the eggs, make cakes or biscuits and talk about what they’re doing amongst themselves and to their family members providing valuable mental stimulus.

“Our new and expanded Birch Abbey will be a revolution in care services. To us it just felt right that Southport with its long tradition as a caring community should lead this revolution and the birth of a new era in care.”

Ends

Further information;

Iain Macauley

Pressrelations.co.uk

+44(0)161 929 0446

+44(0)7788 978800

im@pressrelations.co.uk www.ipersonally.co.uk