North-West business touted as future of ageing

Radical lifestyle company, Evermore, has been included in a new report on the innovations needed to ensure longer lives can also be better lives, combatting the current negative discourse on ageing.

“Ageing Well – a collection of innovative thinking”, published by the new Whiteley Foundation for Ageing Well, examines new approaches to creating a more positive future in which to grow old.

Evermore, developed and funded by North-West entrepreneur Sara McKee, is highlighted as an advancement in housing for older people, one of the options for creating a good older life.

Quoted within the report, Evermore founder Sara McKee said: “Far too many people in residential care live in joyless institutions – there is no positive alternative for people to choose.    I believe in a housing model that doesn’t create ghettos of older people. In fact, my mission is to close every institutional residential and nursing home in the country.

“When my husband Stephen died suddenly in 2011, I was 45. I wanted to do something that had meaning, would make a difference, disrupt the market, and I’m very lucky to be living in the Greater Manchester area where the devolved local authority and NHS are prepared to innovate and to learn by trying things out and take a risk.”

Evermore’s communities of small households provide a home with a heart. The overarching look and feel of an Evermore small household is similar to a family home, abandoning all institutionalised design settings like wards and nursing stations.

Instead, Evermore’s small households feature 10-12 self-contained apartments, with each set of apartments wrapping around a ‘heart’ comprising of a large kitchen dining and living area. A tribe of Mulinellos, self-managed workers, provide practical and emotional support to housemates, as well as acting as a friend and advocate.

Evermore’s first community in Wigan will provide apartments for rent to older people who want to remain living in their community, feeling connected and supported to live a life full of colour, meaning and purpose!

Located in the centre of Wigan, the community will consist of two apartment blocks that will become home to 50 people by 2019.  An all-inclusive package covers all hospitality, domestic and personal care needs with the ability to top up care in the future if it is needed.

ENDS

Notes:

The Whiteley Foundation for Ageing Well was launched by the Whitely Homes Trust in their centenary year because they wanted to understand what it means to age well today, and how society can create environments in which older people can make the most of their added years.