Age UK Birkenhead, Dementia Memory Village Project
Dementia is an illness that is very close to our hearts here at Swift. As people get older, they often start to forget things more. Typically, this is a normal sign of ageing. But for someone with dementia, the changes will be different, more serious and will have a bigger affect on their life. There are currently hundreds of thousands of people in the UK alone affected by dementia.
Many of the Swift Unlimited annexes we have built over the past 16 years have become permanent homes for numerous elderly family members, including those with dementia. At Swift we specialise in offering an independent garden living space for elderly parents, bringing families together on one plot and removing the stress of later life challenges, including elderly parents with dementia.
Dementia Action Week
Dementia Action Week is The Alzheimer’s Society’s biggest and longest running awareness campaign, which runs from 15th – 21st May, this year.
Dementia Action Week has come about not only to help bring attention to this disease, but to help support those people suffering from dementia and their families, and to encourage people to stay healthy.
Age UK Dementia Village – Birkenhead/Challenge Anneka
In a special episode to tie in with Dementia Awareness Week, Swift Unlimited have teamed up with Anneka Rice and the Channel 5 team, alongside a group of fantastic volunteer tradespeople to bring to life an entire ‘memory village’ from scratch for people with dementia.
In September last year, Swift were invited by a large, local SIP (structurally Insulated Panels) manufacturing company to Project Manage and install the construction of the Age UK Dementia Memory Village in Birkenhead, as a volunteer/charity project.
The project was on behalf of Age UK and has become the basis for an episode of the iconic ‘Challenge Anneka’ program for Channel 5, airing Sunday 14th May, at 7.30pm – as a launch to Dementia Action Week 2023.
Swift, alongside an army of volunteers, undertook an incredible achievement constructing a “memory village” for people with dementia in the Wirral – a huge scale project and the team have just three days to complete.
The project consisted of creating seven bespoke shops, fitted out to replicate a period-era high street, consisting of a pub, post office, record shop, cinema, bakery, workshop, greengrocers, a village green, beautiful landscaping and an onsite cafe..
Happy and honoured to be asked to be involved Matt Leighton, Swift’s Construction Manager, volunteered to be in charge of the project management and staffing.
The Project
Swift were introduced to the project with only 2 weeks’ notice from the initial pre-construction meeting (which was conducted the day after introduction) and the build start date! Matt had only 2 weeks to arrange manufacture, procurement, labour, technical drawings, and schedule of works, working with the project architects and channel 5 film/production crew…this was certainly set to be a challenge for everyone involved!
Swift were tasked by the project architects with leading the main body of construction, assisted by multiple other volunteer trades people and their various skill sets.
With the site operating 24 hours a day, the challenge was to complete the project in just 3 days!
The Challenge
It became apparent on day 1 that the interface between the buildings and the wider landscaping had been overlooked. There was a requirement for ‘level-access’ from the village green into the buildings, as dementia patients are often unsteady on foot. This required substantial further groundworks and a last-minute introduction of rainwater drainage, which was introduced and led by Matt, based on his extensive knowledge of building our bespoke Swift annexes nationwide.
The structural build was completed within the 3 days, with internal fit out of period features following, many of which were donated by generous locals.
Swift liaised and worked with the landscapers, with the landscaping completed concurrently to the main building construction.
Below is an exceprt from a recent interview with the show’s host Anneka Rice, in The Wirral Globe:
“HOW HAPPY WERE YOU WHEN IT WAS COMPLETED?
I’m thrilled with this project. The Dutch have a brilliant attitude to the elderly and dementia and this village mimics what they have been doing for years. It means that people with little memory or capacity can wander around safely, go into shops, where they will find care staff to help them unlock memories.
There was one lady for whom Elvis was the only person she could remember, and to see her happily sitting in the record shop clutching an album of Elvis cracked my heart wide open.
We had a singsong in the new pub at the end, and although the dementia gang didn’t know their names or what they were doing there, they suddenly burst into word-and-pitch-perfect renditions of Danny Boy and My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. It was astounding.
At that moment the rain eased and a rainbow arched over the village. It was pretty mind-blowing”
Swift Unlimited learned so much about later life challenges during this experience making them all the more determined to get their message out there for those families who can really benefit from the concept of multi-generational independent living. A heart-warming pathway to potentially three generations savouring the joys of extended family life.
- Swift empower families to utilise a simple solution for later life challenges facing elderly parents.
- This solution minimises the multi-level and demanding stresses caused to family members as a result of later life loneliness, rising care home costs and difficulties in providing practical family support.
- Swift offer…
Access to essential, professional and independent financial advice which is crucial when considering this life-enhancing decision.
A collaborative opportunity for to create a bespoke living space designed for individual desires as well as personal needs.
A high-quality turn key service which is project-managed throughout.
A truly positive outcome which is bringing families together, whilst still sustaining independent living. And critically, keeping control over united family decisions, access to each other and ongoing health care.
