Corporate entry: Adards Nursing Home

Summary

The Adards Nursing Home, a unique special residential dementia facility, was conceived in the mid-1980s and opened in Warrane in 1991. It has received international acclaim for both its design and the management of disturbed people with dementia without the usual heavy medication. It only admits those whose problem behaviour is such that no other facility can manage them.

Details

It originated when Drs John Tooth (State Mental Health Commissioner) and geriatrician Sam Ginsberg planned alternative accommodation to that of the state Psychiatric Hospital for these frightened people. The premise was that behavioural disturbance would ameliorate in a domestic environment. Four 9-bedroomed houses were joined at night to save night-staffing.


The results have been remarkable. Dogs, cats, chickens and an aviary, with home cooking in each house, give an ambience which contributes to the remarkable speed at which disturbed people become relaxed and content. But it is the staff under the remarkable leadership of Allan Bester, Director of Nursing, who are mainly responsible for Adards' success. Dr Tooth, psychogeriatrican, and Mr Bester have provided continuity over thirteen years of successful operation.


Since the above was written a major change has been the retirement of Allan Bester in July 2006 after 15 years of being constantly 'on-call'. It is impossible to over-emphasise the contribution he made to the success of Adards.  He has recently escalated to world prominence when Professor Jiska Cohen-Mansfield of Washington DC, one of the leading global authorities in regard to problem behaviour in people with dementia, asked him to co-author an article on his unique management method in an international journal.

John Tooth

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