A Special Dementia Unit (Hostel): Review of the First Eleven Years Operation

The aim of this review was to study the outcome of residents in a Special Dementia Unit (SDU) in the form of a hostel for 36 people during the first eleven years of operation. The participants were one hundred and seventy one residents admitted for permanent care during that period. The median length of stay in the hostel was 2.3 years. By the end of the period 113 residents (83 percent of those who had completed their time in the hostel) had been transferred to nursing homes. The average survival time after admission to the hostel was 4.7 years. In order to accommodate those who had been transferred from the SDU about the same number of hostel places were needed in nursing homes. We concluded that admission to an SDU hostel for selected people with dementia is more appropriate and less costly than direct admission to a nursing home, notwithstanding the need for subsequent nursing care for the majority. Adequate subsidy should be provided by the Commonwealth Government so that voluntary associations are encouraged to set up SDU hostels for this purpose. Nursing homes should be run in association with these hostels.