Acquisition gives Aged Care Plus the butterfly effect
Acquisition gives Aged Care Plus the butterfly effect
8 February 2018
The Salvation Army's Aged Care Plus provides a range of quality aged care residential accommodation centres and villages across New South Wales, ACT and Queensland.
The Salvation Army Aged Care Plus has acquired United Kingdom-based Dementia Care Matters, a leading international dementia care culture-change organisation.
Aged Care Plus is an industry leader in the provision of spiritual, dementia, palliative and mental health care, and this acquisition forms part of its commitment to improving outcomes for older people living with dementia in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the United States.
Dementia Care Matters will continue operating out of the UK, and is committed to transforming the lives of those living with dementia through its successful Butterfly Household Model of Care, a ground-breaking approach to dementia care that focuses on the emotions of people living with dementia.
The Butterfly Household Model of Care was founded by Dr David Sheard in 1995 when the model was extensively piloted over a five-year period at a care home called Merevale House in the UK.
Dr Sheard said the controversial aspect of his model is that carers are trained to join people with dementia in their reality and engage with their memories, rather than constantly trying to bring them back into the present.
Aged Care Plus was the first Australian provider to launch this model of care in July 2016, in Chapel Hill, Queensland, and in Narrabundah, ACT, and since then has seen the quality of life, health and wellbeing for residents living with dementia significantly improve. During this time, Aged Care Plus has developed a close working relationship with Dementia Care Matters.
Aged Care Plus operates 23 centres throughout NSW, ACT and Queensland, with another soon to open in Mossman, Queensland.
Sharon Callister, Aged Care Plus Chief Executive Officer, said: “The Butterfly Household Model of Care has seen significant success within our two pilot centres and we were thrilled to launch the model at a third centre on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in October 2017. The acquisition of Dementia Care Matters is an exciting step forward for Aged Care Plus, and will see all of our memory support homes roll out the Butterfly Household Model of Care in the coming years.”
Newly appointed CEO for Dementia Care Matters, Peter Bewert, will relocate to the United Kingdom in March 2018 and will continue to work closely with founders, Dr Sheard and Peter Priednieks, as they take up their new roles of Emeritus Director/Founder and Learning Director/Co-Founder.
“I feel honoured to have been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer for Dementia Care Matters,” Peter Bewert said. “I am passionate about the work Dementia Care Matters does to make a difference in the lives of those living with dementia, and I have witnessed first-hand the powerful impact this organisation has had on the lives of those in Australia and the United Kingdom.
“I look forward to embracing this new role, and working with employees who are aligned with my vision and mission to see the best care provided to older people across the world.”
Comments
Hi,
I attended the Dementia Care Matters training in Sydney in 2019 and I would like to interact with one of the teachers at that time. There is a resource that I would like to find.
Thanks
Tony
writing this comment mid 2024, Are we still only up to 3 or 4 Australian facilities using the Butterfly model? As its now a subsidiary of Salvos can I get a list of all facilities currently offering or working on the Butterfly project transition in Australia please? Id have expected the acquisition would mean all your centres operating this way? Covid released a whole bunch of compassionate artists onto the marketplace who could be retrained more effective im sure than retraining a non empathic person to have instant emotional intelligence . This system (age old in private settings,) haas been codified for the institutional setting since 1995. A whole generation of people have aged without access to this no-brainer model of care. Please tell me where we can find a residence operating this way - currently prepared to consider relocating. Thankyou