New care village will be a ‘home away from home’

The Tweedbank Care Village on the Lowood Estate will be a radical shift away from the traditional concept of residential care for older people.

Inspired by a Dutch dementia care village it will comprise of three residential blocks, with a residents hub within the facility incorporating music and craft rooms, a hairdressers, a gym and physiotherapy facility.

There are also plans for a village shop that could be run as a community interest, and utilised by the local community as well as care village residents.

Additionally, discussions are ongoing with the NHS for GPs, dentists and other health professionals to make visits on specific days.

Ensuring that the complex is a part of and at the heart of the community is also a priority, members of Eildon Area Partnership were informed when members met via video-link on Thursday, November 17.

Lyn Medley, business manager with Scottish Borders Council, said: “What is different in this facility compared to the ones we normally have is that bedrooms can be combined, for two sisters or two friends, two brothers, a couple, whatever, who have always lived together. At the moment they would end up in different rooms, but in this new facility they can have a bedroom and a sitting room, or however they would like it configured. But it is possible to make this into a double space rather than two single rooms.

“We will also have a family retreat room, so anyone who would like family to stay overnight there is room for them to do so.

“This isn’t just about building a replacement care home, it’s about a whole new model of care and a vision for a much more integrated way of delivering care and how our facility integrates into the community and vice-versa.”

Partnership chair Elaine Thornton-Nicol said: “This is about people living in houses, not individual bedrooms, with shared kitchens where you can go get a biscuit when you want a biscuit.

“Your kitchen will look like your kitchen at home and it’s about people living a normal life – not putting them in a building and saying ‘you can have a bathroom and a bedroom’. It’s about getting the community into the care village because the care village is part of the community.”

The new facility will replace the existing Garden View and Waverely care homes in Galashiels, which are to close.