Ryman Healthcare Scoops Two International Awards

Nellie Melba Retirement Village and myRyman Life dementia model win top prizes in Singapore

Ryman Healthcare’s Nellie Melba Retirement Village and its dementia care model have scooped top prizes in the 2020 Eldercare Innovation Awards in Singapore.

Nellie Melba, Ryman’s second village to open in Victoria, was named Project of the Year in the Residential Aged Care in the Asia Pacific region.

And the myRyman Life model of dementia care was named Innovation of the Year in the Dementia Care Solution category.

Ryman Healthcare Chief Executive Gordon MacLeod said the awards recognised excellence in the Asia Pacific region, and the wins were great recognition for Ryman’s design, construction and operations teams.

“It is fantastic to get recognition in both these awards because they span everything we do, from building beautiful villages to caring for people.

“We are unusual in that we design, build and then operate our villages – doing everything we can with our own team. The team includes architects and builders through to nurses, caregivers and gardeners, so everything we build is built based on our own experience.

“A huge amount of teamwork goes into taking a bare piece of land and turning it into an absolutely stunning village like Nellie Melba, which not only provides gorgeous apartments but also the best of care to its residents.

“The village’s design is the combination of a whole lot of experience, learning and innovation that you can only get with experience. It is a beautiful village, and a testament not just to its designers, but everyone who has worked and continues to work on it.’’

Ryman Healthcare has been providing specialist dementia care for more than 20 years, and currently has more than 850 dementia beds in New Zealand and Australia.

There are more than 70,000 Kiwis and 400,000 Australians living with dementia, and these numbers are forecast to more than double in the next 30 years.

Ryman’s model of dementia care was developed in conjunction with its residents and families, as well as considering the latest international research.

“The recognition of myRyman Life is reward for a huge amount of innovation and determination from our operations team, whose goal it is to ensure that our residents living with dementia can have the best quality of life possible,’’ Mr MacLeod said.

“It has been a huge education project and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our residents and their families, who are as committed to demystifying and destigmatising dementia as we are.

“This year has been an incredibly challenging year because of COVID, and these awards are a wonderful way to end it. I have never been prouder of our team.’’

About myRyman Life:

myRyman Life was developed around four key principles:

• Demystifying Dementia - providing staff and families with a better understanding of dementia; the uniqueness of the disease for each person and how this affects their ability to function independently.
• Making Sense of My World - supports a person to live a life they would perceive as good, in the moment, focused on experiences, rather than processes.
• Destressing the Environment - emphasises the importance of good dementia design principles and is designed to support staff to understand how to pre-empt and prevent distress through effective communication.
• Quality of Life - provides staff and families with a better understanding of the elements that contribute to a person’s perception of their own quality of life and to behave in a way that supports the realisation of positive experiences for people living with dementia.

About Nellie Melba:

Nellie Melba welcomed its first residents in August 2018 and is now home to more than 400 people and employs 200 staff on site at Wheelers Hill in Melbourne.

Its design had to take into account the need to combine more than 300 independent and serviced apartments with an integrated care centre with 190 beds. The village includes low and high-level care and dementia care.

Design considerations included incorporated protected trees on the site, providing continued public access via a walkway, and a design that fitted into the existing urban environment.

The village was named in honour of Australia opera icon Dame Nellie Melba, and was officially opened by her closest living relative, Lord Vestey, in 2019.

About Ryman Healthcare: Ryman was founded in 1984 and has become one of New Zealand’s largest listed companies. The company owns 39 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia which are home to more than 12,000 residents and the company employs 6,100 staff.

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