Marbrook Centre – Specialist neurological and Dementia care service

The Marbrook Centre is a purpose-built specialist neurological and Dementia care centre near St. Neots, Cambridgeshire. This impressive new build has the facilities to care for 81 residents living with life-changing conditions such as Acquired Brain Injury, Spinal Injury, Stroke or Dementia.

As the centre is focused on providing state-of-the-art rehabilitation and long term care for private and NHS funded clients, Marbrook required assisted baths from a supplier that could be trusted – hence Gainsborough Specialist Bathrooms was selected.

Open from April 2016, this service will deliver the very best care outcomes for each individual and their families, in a contemporary high quality environment. Its neuro rehabilitation care ethos is highlighted in the level of investment including a two bedroom pre-discharge training flat. This is designed to enable individuals and their carers to gain the required skills and confidence to move on.

All bedrooms have an ensuite wet room plus easy access to a spacious accessible bathroom – each with either a height adjustable Ascot bath or Kent 2 hi-lo bath with Air Spa provided by Gainsborough. These disabled baths include powered bather transfer seats and variable height to provide the highest quality care, safety and dignity for bathers along with a safe working height for carers. With the support of a carer, each transfer seat lifts, rotates and lowers a bather into the bath in a safe and controlled manner. The bath and temperature controlled water can then be raised so that the user can experience the hygienic and therapeutic benefits of bathing.

Once fully operational the Marbrook Centre will have a 100-strong multi-disciplinary clinical team specialising in neurological care. These healthcare professionals will be operating in a building that incorporates cutting-edge design to ensure that each individual’s experience is of the utmost standard. The Centre’s specialist Dementia service has utilised University of Stirling’s Dementia Design Best Practice, to enable each Marbrook resident to be as independent as possible. This University is regarded as a world leader in ‘Dementia friendly’ design – hence has worked in partnership with the Marbrook Management team to deliver a ‘calm and friendly’ environment with a ‘sense of meaning’ for clients. Best Practice features include colour coding of fixtures and fittings to assist with orientation and location, specific tonal variations between walls and floors to encourage confident walking through to wall mounted memory boxes containing objects of personal significance.

The RSPB has advised how to ensure the exterior of the Marbrook Centre and its sensory garden is wildlife friendly – adding to the overall vision to produce a place ‘full of life’ with a ‘sense of community’. There is also an impressive rehabilitation gymnasium onsite along with a salon, cinema, café, nine ‘rehabilitation’ kitchens and several multi-purpose entertainment rooms – all focused on encouraging as much independent activity as possible. The staff team also wear appropriate yet non-professional clothing to encourage a more homely, less institutional feeling.

With its wide range of disabled baths , Gainsborough has been instrumental in helping The Marbrook Centre deliver safe and dignified bathing that is regarded as an ‘enjoyable occasion’. This is why the Marbrook team including C.O.O. Lisa McNaulty, and Head of Care Pathways, Robert Myers, selected Gainsborough Specialist Bathrooms as it is a well-known and established specialist. Robert comments:

“We believe assisted bathing provides multiple rehabilitation benefits to our residents and can be for some, a far more pleasurable option than showering in an accessible wet room. We selected Gainsborough as our preferred bath supplier following a visit to last year’s Care Show where this leading manufacturer showcased its range of hi-lo powered baths. Their product quality, committed service and varied design and installation experience impressed us along with an ability to add sensory features to the baths. Functions such as Chromotherapy and Air Spa enhance residents’ experience so that bathing sessions are both relaxing yet stimulating and help promote engagement with their key carers.”

Robert continues:

“The simple fact that the bath and water are raised up and over the bather as opposed to the bather being lowered into water is an important psychological feature I would say. Moving and handling risk is minimised and safety maximised for both carer and bather through the hi-lo adjustment of each bath. The Kent 2 powered transfer seats can be detached to provide onward transit chairs. This provides a smooth and efficient transfer from bathroom to bedroom and eliminates the need to invest in ceiling track or mobile hoists.”

Robert adds:

“The support we received from Gainsborough was exceptional from concept to completion. Their technicians worked closely with the Contracts Manager to ensure all pre-installation works were completed and the bathroom design facilitated easy wheelchair manoeuvring and 360-degree carer access to the disabled baths. Even when we changed the specification of baths just before delivery, Gainsborough were able to accommodate our needs without impacting on the tight installation schedule. Fitting and commissioning were completed in a matter of days and we are very pleased with the end result. We now have trusted equipment that is proven to meet the challenges of high-traffic assisted baths. Each Gainsborough bath will add to our ethos of providing unsurpassed care and help to offer meaningful activity to daily life here at Marbrook.”

“Gainsborough Specialist Bathrooms is exceptional to work with. The whole design, installation and bath commissioning process was smooth and fluid from start to finish. Every member of its highly professional team knew exactly what they were doing which made our job so much easier. They delivered on all their promises – they did everything we required and their timing was perfect.”

Derek Paramanis, Contracts Manager, Lawrence Baker

“DWA Architects have worked on a number of projects with Gainsborough throughout the years, with the knowledge that our Clients will be receiving a state of the art product. The baths at the Marbrook Centre will provide the resident and care assistant with reassurance of a safe and comfortable environment.”

Ray Mortimer, Architect, DWA Architects