Sydenham Court
Supported Housing for people with dementia

The concept of supported living in the community for people with dementia is a relatively new one. Traditionally services for dementia have been based upon a presumption of incapacity. This has been characterised by institutional approaches to care with a focus of ‘doing for’ the person, rather than ‘enabling’ and maintaining those skills still present.

Dementia is a disability, which affects each individual person in a different way.

Sydenham Court is a supported housing scheme, which has been designed to compensate for the disabilities associated with dementia, such as forgetfulness, memory loss, and disorientation.

Located in the heart of their community, at Sydenham Gardens in Belfast, the scheme aims to promote quality of life and real choice for people with dementia, as well as encourage independence, autonomy and social inclusion within their local community.

Models such as these are increasingly being seen as a viable alternative to residential care, offering tenancies in high quality accommodation combined with a range of support and care services.

Sydenham Court which opened in January 2002, provides 25 self contained flats.

This models has been well researched and developed through a Partnership between Clanmil Housing and South and East Belfast Trust. To be eligible for this special needs housing, people must have a dementia.

Benefits of Supported Housing for people with dementia

Traditionally people who had a diagnosis of dementia and assessed as unable to remain in their own home had little option but to be admitted into 24-hour residential care. These facilities usually have a locked door policy as a way of managing the risk of residents leaving the premises unsupervised. The impact of such a restrained controlled environment can have a devastating effect on some individuals and can encourage many negative behavioural responses.

Residential care, by design offers few opportunities for people living there to continue doing daily meaningful activities, such as household tasks, e.g. making tea, doing dishes, shopping, cleaning.

Consequently people with dementia can become de-skilled very quickly, not necessarily because of the disease process but due to lack of opportunity to practice or retain daily living skills.

Sydenham Court is testimony to the fact that people with dementia can continue to live a meaningful and active life with dementia. With careful assessment based on individual strengths, tenants are assisted to live as independently as possible.

Each tenant is supported to carry on with normal day-to-day activities, which range from preparing meals, light house work, shopping, maintaining meaningful relationships and participating in community life, for example, senior citizen clubs, church, and pursuit of hobbies such as bowls, gardening, painting etc

The psychological shift from ‘being in a home’ to ‘living in your own home’ is a powerful method in creating a sense of autonomy and achievement and continued genuine family involvement in the lives of the tenants.

Assistive Technology

The supported housing model uses smart technology, which assists in compensating for the disability of memory loss, promotes safety and enables the staff to monitor tenants discreetly with minimum intrusion. This in turn promotes confidence and reassurance for relatives and staff and guarantees increased privacy and independence for the tenants.

There is a staff presence over the 24-hour period, providing a domiciliary type service with focused support to each tenant. The staff are specifically trained in working with people who have dementia.

Critical to the success of these schemes are a number of factors:

Click here for information about our other Supported Housing Project,Mullan Mews