clinical focus
The Butterfly effect
A new approach to
dementia care is
changing the lives of
residents – and staff.
Louise DeWolf interviewed
by Patrick Avenell
L
ouise DeWolf is the Butterfly Model coordinator at Barunga
Village, a retirement home and residential aged care provider
in Port Broughton, a township 170km northwest of Adelaide.
Barunga Village has recently completed a 12-month pilot
program for a type of dementia care called the Butterfly Model,
originally formulated in 1995 by Dr David Sheard.
While dementia care has a history of being task-oriented
and institutionalised, DeWolf says the Butterfly Model sees a
total transformation in the way people with dementia are cared
for, with a focus on their emotions, and replicating home-like
environments and everyday activities they enjoyed earlier in life.
“The most enjoyable changes to witness have been the increase
in laughter and happiness within the people living in the Butterfly
Home, and their meaningful engagements with their families and
our staff,” DeWolf said.
“Over the past year there has been a definite decrease in the
number of falls and positive weight gain in the 16 people who live
in the Butterfly House.”
Aged care Insite spoke with DeWolf about this program.
ACI: Can you start by giving us an overview of what the
Butterfly Model involves and why it is so groundbreaking?
LD: It’s a model of care that focuses on the emotions of people
living with dementia. It was founded in the UK by Dr David
Sheard of Dementia Care Matters. There’s a fundamental belief
that the Butterfly Household Model of Care is that people living
with dementia can thrive well in a nurturing environment. I
think what makes it so groundbreaking is that we’ve removed
all that task-based routine. We’ve got a whole new approach
to recruitment and training. We’ve removed institutionalised
features that you’d see in a normal nursing home. We’ve got no
uniforms, no medication trolleys. We now have a ‘go with the
flow’, relaxed atmosphere.
22 agedcareinsite.com.au
I understand that there are changes in mealtimes as well.
Can you elaborate on that?
The meal times are completely different from the past. We had a
very set schedule about what time they would have their meals,
but now it’s very relaxed.
Lunch can go for a few hours like it does when you go out
with your friends. Staff sit and eat a meal with people living there
now. There’s more choice. We use smells and aromas to increase
appetite. We have 24-hour food available and it’s visible for people
to access.
How has the village been refurbished in order to meet this
new system?
We’ve split our existing dementia unit, as we used to call it,
into two houses now. It’s all household focused. We’ve got
two different households and we’ve made the walls bright and
colourful. We’ve brought in a lot more stuff which is from their
era, so they can relate to it and it’s familiar.
We’ve also got a lot more things for them to engage with and for
staff to use as resources to have engaging, meaningful moments.
You talked about how the staff are no longer wearing
uniforms. Why is that important?
It breaks down the ‘them and us’ barrier. It’s a way of making it
more family-oriented so you can actually walk into the home
and feel at home and be comfortable because there’s no ‘them
and us’, just everybody’s on the same level, if that makes sense.
I understand that there are activities like making scones and
feeding chickens.
We have more daily household chores that you would do in your
own home. So for many years people would be at home, they’d
make their own beds, they’d cook their own food, but when they
come into aged care, it’s often taken away from them. We do it all
for them. So this is about staff being with people, instead of doing
for people.
We’ve got chickens and the people living here go out and feed
them. They bake scones in the morning. Every day is different;
sometimes they can be out gardening or they can be inside
just relaxing and reading the newspaper. It’s just all about daily
hou