Orchard Care Homes, a leading care providers across the north of England, has launched a new initiative which aims to shift in attitudes towards dementia care across the UK.

The ‘Dementia Promise’ is part of Orchard Care Homes’ commitment to challenge the negativity and inequalities often experienced by people living with dementia in care homes.

Hannah Miller, dementia lead at Orchard Care Homes, said: “Frequently, vulnerable people are referred to care homes by external partners using language that describes them in predominantly negative terms – challenging, aggressive and so on. This language lays the foundations of how the person is seen and thus initiates negative thinking about them from the outset. This needs to change across the sector.”

Through its commitment to on-going changes in dementia care, the group, which is now fully digital, has committed to training every colleague in three levels of bespoke, evidence-based training; and continues to increase investment in technology, recruitment and care home environments.

Miller added: “Our Dementia Promise aims to break the mould of what care home life has become across the country and sets out to ensure people’s care and support is firmly grounded in who they are and their abilities. This contrasts with common practices which often focus on inabilities and blanket risk mitigation. Through our initiative, we seek to enable life to be as normal as possible for people – with them being encouraged to thrive and live life to the full.”

Orchard’s Dementia Promise aims to: remove conscious and unconscious stigma associated with dementia; encourage others across the sector to stop using derogatory, blaming language; and promote genuine collaboration and provide people with dedicated communication lines with a dementia specialist, regardless of whether they use Orchard’s services.

Orchard’s designated dementia communities, Reconnect, are also expanding as part of this Dementia Promise. With four established communities already in the Northeast, West Yorkshire and Warrington, and more planned for the future – the group strives to enhance wellbeing overall, by providing individualised, nurturing, and holistic care; focusing on identity, meaningful occupation and positive risk-taking.