Jane Verity and her team at Dementia Care Australia (DCA) have through years of research discovered the vital importance of providing a loved home for people with dementia and how to create it.
Once the person with dementia loves living where they live, everything becomes easier, more constructive and more enjoyable for all concerned. The loved home is the beginning of the person’s potential to thrive.
The Spark of Life Approach is a proven, well-documented approach to dementia care, which creates an extraordinary culture that people with dementia simply love. This culture turns their place of residence into a warm, nurturing home that holds the potential for people with dementia to thrive beyond the diagnosis.They love living where they live.
The dedicated DCA Team is now contacting facilities and families all over Australia to offer them the opportunity to turn their homes into Spark of Life Homes.
The Spark of Life – a whole new world of dementia care
DCA is setting out to build a whole new world of dementia care – a world in which people with dementia love living where they live and the people that care for them love doing so – a world where people with dementia and their carers thrive.
This is not simply a wonderful idea, it is a real possibility. Under the guidance of Jane Verity, the team at DCA have developed a reliable formula for building a culture in your facility where:
- People with dementia love where they live
- Staff love working there, and
- Families love visiting.
We call this The Spark of Life Approach and practising it consistently creates a culture where wonderful outcomes occur. Growing a Spark of Life Culture and creating such a home establishes an environment where people with dementia and their carers can thrive.
DCA’s strategy for building this wonderful world of dementia care is to work alongside you – person by person, facility by facility – to create the culture that will change forever the way people with dementia live. We enter into a supportive partnership with dementia care facilities and individual carers to help them achieve this goal. This partnership is Spark of Life membership. And our goal? To have Australia become recognised as the world leader in the emotional care of people with dementia. We aim to show the world what is possible in dementia care by helping facility leaders throughout Australia to evolve their facilities into nurturing homes where people with dementia love living and the staff loving working in. We envisage that in the future the whole world will look at Australia in awe for our achievements and leadership – seeing us as the leading nation in the field of dementia care.
The Spark of Life Approach was developed in Australia and is in itself a huge breakthrough in dementia care. DCA now aims to contact every facility leader in this country and offer them the chance to learn and use the approach, develop the culture and reap the rewards. Many have already done so. The reported results are outstanding.
We will ask three questions:
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Do your residents love living in your facility?
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Do your staff members love working there?
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Do the families love visiting?
Depending on the answers, DCA will then offer facility leaders the opportunity to take their first substantial step towards answering ‘Yes!’ to each of these questions by becoming a Spark of Life member.
Membership is a commitment that says, ‘We aim to have our residents love living here, our staff love working here and our families love visiting.’ It is the launching pad for any facility to start evolving into an authentic Spark of Life Home.
What is a Spark of Life Home?
A Spark of Life Home is a place where people with dementia love to live. It is a colourful, flexible, loving, nurturing and stimulating place; a real home where people with dementia thrive and those that care for them feel energised, and uplifted. It is a wonderful place full of joy, satisfaction, purpose and pride.
In a Spark of Life Home, people with dementia experience feeling special and those that care for them experience the joy of enabling this. Difficult behaviour is minimised because of the low levels of frustration and resentment. Staff enjoy coming to work and the families of residents are delighted knowing their precious family members love living where they live.
A Spark of Life Home represents the best of best practice in dementia care. Carers use the Spark of Life Approach to develop an extraordinary culture that is a pleasure to work in and even better to live in. For facilities that are committed to excellence in dementia care, the Spark of Life Approach sets the bar. This proven, and successful approach builds on the philosophy of Person Centred Care and the heart of the Eden Alternative. This simple and yet profound approach enhances any facility and liberates precious resources.
The process for creating your Spark of Life Home is simple:
- Become a member of the Spark of Life Community
- Learn and practise the three-step Spark of Life Approach
- Use the website and membership resources to develop your SOL Culture
- Broaden and your facility’s culture with other specially tailored Spark of Life programs, products and resources when you need them.