In my role as a member of a Trafford council scrutiny task force looking at older peoples services, we visited a quite fantastic facility in Macclesfield this morning. Homes for the elderly range from the traditional model of the 1960’s to the ground breaking scheme known as ‘Belong’ in Macclesfield.
Designed with input and ideas from older people and opened in 2007, Belong offers a range of accommodation from truly self contained apartments where residents exercise full independence to facilities for people suffering from what I consider to be a cruel condition, dementia.
We were told that the object of Belong was to encourage residents to not only interact with one another but also with the community in which they live. The ethos of the place is to respect the individuality of residents and allow them to make the everyday decisions that are often denied them in more traditional settings.
One thing that struck me about the scheme in Macclesfield is the very high design and architectural standard that has been applied. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into this particular living space. This is surely the right approach to providing specialist accommodation for older people.
Trafford is not without its good examples and tomorrow we visit Elkin Court in Partington. So I will provide a report after that visit.
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Did you escape Partington unscathed, Councillor?
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