Butterfly Household Model of Care Launches at Barunga Village

A ground-breaking model of dementia care, developed in the United Kingdom more than 20 years ago, will be implemented and launched in three Australian aged care homes this month, including Barunga Village in South Australia.

In 1995 in the United Kingdom, Dr David Sheard founded Dementia Care Matters, now a global dementia care culture change and training organisation, and developed the Butterfly Household Model of Care.

The Butterfly Household Model of Care is a ground-breaking approach to dementia care that focuses on the emotions of people living with dementia.

The fundamental belief of the Butterfly Household Model of Care is that people living with dementia can thrive well in a nurturing environment, which in turn reduces their anxiety and stress levels to improve their wellbeing.

The implementation of the model will include a complete refurbishment of the interior spaces of Barunga’s dementia wing, to ensure the rooms are colourful and highly engaging, alongside a new approach to staff training which focuses on staff developing their emotional intelligence.

Dr Sheard said the controversial aspect of the Butterfly Care Model is that carers are trained to join people with dementia in their reality and engage with their memories, rather than constantly trying to bring them back into the present.

“You can’t pump knowledge, reason and information back into people with dementia, it is a complete waste of time. Instead by joining them in their reality you are satisfying their emotional needs, which in turn reduces their anxiety and stress levels to improve their wellbeing,” he said.

Key aspects of the model include:

• Developing small household living for people with dementia in a family-like environment,
• Removing institutional features such as staff wearing uniforms, medicine trolleys, and rigid task-based routines, and
• Enabling greater freedom for people living in the home to do more for themselves and feel less restricted.

There are now 44 Butterfly Care Homes in the UK, three in Ireland, and three in Canada.

Results in the established Butterfly Care Homes have shown care homes use of anti-psychotic medications has decreased to almost 5%, compared to the national norms that are around 20% to 40% in the UK and Australia, and a 44% decrease in the number of falls. People have also had significant weight gain and fewer admissions to hospital.

Dr Sheard and his team launched the the one-year pilot of the Butterfly Care model at Barunga Village yesterday.

Pictured: Louise DeWolf, Butterfly Household Model of Care Coordinator at Barunga Village, and Merrilyn Hewett, Barunga Village’s Director of Nursing.