Uniting Amala's Newest Household Wins Excellence Award for Construction

Richard Crookes Constructions (RCC) the builder for Uniting's Amala aged care home in Gordon has won the Special Purpose Commercial Building category of the 2021 ACT Master Builders and Asset Construction Hire Excellence Awards.

Uniting Amala care home features 40 beds made up of two high-care 'memory support units' that offer state-of-the-art dementia care.

The home in Canberra's south operates under the 'household model' of care which gives greater freedom to residents to make their own choices throughout the day in smaller households of 18-20 people.

The development team at RCC design focuses on creating low-maintenance, green spaces to ensure residents can feel calm and comfortable in their home. The development also features a variety of visually and textually stimulating outdoor spaces such as a dementia walk, barbecue facilities, a chessboard and a tranquil water feature.

The care home sits within a campus featuring the Uniting Amala Independent Living Village and Seniors Gym.

The campus has been designed for a continuum of care between retirement living, home care and residential aged care.

Uniting Amala is also proud that its model of care reflects the direction of the Royal Commission Final Report that states that the government  should "create incentives for providers to develop small households of accommodation" (Recommendation 142) as well as guidelines for dementia-care that are "capable of application to small 'household' models of accommodation" (Recommendation 45).

"We're proud to showcase our memory support units at Amala in Canberra to be an example of how older Australians with dementia can have more independence in residential aged care," said Director of Property and Housing, Simon Furness.

"Uniting has been blown away by the care and craftmanship that Richard Crookes has put into Amala. Our residents absolutely love the lush landscapes and homely spaces in the carehouse."

The ACT Master Builders and Asset Construction Hire Excellence Awards showcase the very best in Residential, Commercial and Civil construction across the ACT. The Master Builders Association have been holding the awards since 2018.

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