Why would anyone suffering from dementia consider moving to a care facility in Thailand?
Peter Brown, owner and manager of Care Resort Chiang Mai explains: ‘Most people automatically think of cost and climate. Yes, it is usually cheaper and certainly warmer but the biggest benefit is the level of care and the quality of life that comes with it. Care works! However for care to work it requires a high number of dedicated carers. In the West, especially in operations run for profit this is not affordable. At Care Resort Chiang Mai nursing staff to guest ratio is around ‘one to one’, compare this to other facilities and you might be shocked. Every carer has had at least a year’s medical training. It takes more than a badge on the shirt to make a carer!
Guests who benefit most from high care levels are dementia sufferers. Even our advanced dementia/Alzheimer’s guests can go out on the weekly shopping trips and the monthly excursions. It requires one care staff for each guest. We have a 12 acre facility, all guests can walk around the 1,000 trees. Nobody here is locked up at any time. Advanced dementia sufferers pick up a carer when they want to stroll outside. Disable guests are pushed in their wheelchairs not when we want but when they want.
Our ‘double’ award-winning care facility has 2 key philosophies:
- That there will always be sufficient high quality care
- That independence, choice and dignity of the individual remain key requirements.
