What is a Butterfly Care Home®?
Butterfly Care Homes® are specially designed households, within our retirement communities, for people living with dementia which allow residents to recreate moments and memories from their past. Our households are full of colour, pictures, and sensory items. The process of transforming part of a community into a Butterfly Care Home takes time and starts with getting to know the residents and their histories.
We take a special approach to dementia care, ensuring both our staff and resident’s families are trained with a focus on using innovative, person-centred approaches to meet their loved ones complex needs. Staff and families are encouraged to be constant and attentive companions, who are connecting, still, and able to enjoy the moments throughout the day with the residents. Delivering emotion-focused care that connects with people in a dignified, human way addresses the holistic needs of the individuals and supports their quality of life.
The Butterfly Model of Care was developed by Meaningful Care Matters™ (formerly Dementia Care Matters™), an international transformative support and culture change organization based in the United Kingdom with more than 20 years of experience in this field.
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What is Dementia?
Dementia is an overall term for a set of symptoms that are caused by disorders affecting the brain. Symptoms may include: memory loss, difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. These symptoms may be severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities. A person with dementia may also experience changes in mood or behaviour.
Dementia is progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse as more brain cells become damaged.
Dementia is not a specific disease. Many diseases can cause dementia, including: Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia (due to strokes), Lewy Body disease, head trauma, fronto-temporal dementia, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. These conditions can have similar and overlapping symptoms.
~the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada