Dementia residential facility opens today

The new dementia residential facility Hillsides will officially open today and will welcome patients in phases over the next coming months.
Each phase will take around four weeks and will continue until the premises are at full capacity with 52 beds.
Last Friday Health Minister, Neil Costa, gave the press a tour of the new premises ahead of the official launch.
The new facility will be staffed by around 100 employees from MedDoc, a private medical company, and £150,000 was spent on dementia friendly furniture.
The building, which has been under planning and construction for the past seven years, includes a hairdressing room, en suite bedrooms, lounge and kitchen areas, a snoezelen room, a quiet room and a mortuary.
Eight respite beds will provide families with temporary relief and the building has been fitted with specialist security and safety features.
There are no set visitor hours at Hillsides, meaning that relatives can visit at any time of day.
The Gibraltar Alzheimer’s and Dementia Society has also been granted an area within the building.
Each floor will also have assisted toilet and shower rooms for patients.
Doors have been fitted with a door finger protector for patient safety and doors will be able to open both ways in case of emergency.
The snoezelen room, a place where patients can relax, has been fitted with mood lights, fibre optics, aroma therapy machines, a nursery rhyme projector and a sound system with tranquil music.
In the unfortunate circumstance when patients pass away relatives can go to a quiet room beside the mortuary.
This area has a separate entrance so families need not to walk through the facility to get to the mortuary area.
Within the quiet room there is a small kitchen area where relatives can make tea or coffee.