How would you like to spend the latter years of your life? That’s the £18 billion question, which equates to the value of the care home industry in the UK, according to Savills. The industry now has more than 360,000 residents, Office for National Statistics research has revealed. While there are many options to choose from when looking for a care home or retirement community, there are a few places that go above and beyond to ensure not only comfort, but the most luxurious quality of life for their residents.
Leading the charge in this space is the hospitality expert turned advocate in the fight against dementia, Laurence Geller. Care isn’t a word Geller takes lightly. When he greets me in the conference room of Loveday & Co, the dementia-focused care home he built in Kensington, London, and has expanded, with properties in Notting Hill, Chelsea and now St John’s Wood, he wears a suit, neatly pressed, with a small “L” pinned to his lapel. No detail is out of place in Geller’s appearance, likewise in his care facilities.
Geller started Loveday in 2016, after a decades-long career in the hospitality industry where he began as a kitchen porter, eventually taking on corporate leadership positions at Hyatt and Holiday Inn. Today he is the chancellor of the University of West London, which is home to the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, as well as the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory. Geller also happens to serve as chairman of the International Churchill Society, and Geller Capital Partners, a private property investment group in Chicago, where he lived for more than 40 years. Geller wanted to use his experience to bring a better quality of life to care home residents and to honour his parents, both of whom died from dementia.
Maintaining his residents’ sense of individuality is a big part of the ethos of Loveday, and it explains why it’s a place residents seem so happy to live. “Divining the needs of the recipient while not assuming all human beings are the same”, Geller tells me, has been the key to Loveday’s success. At the home, everything has been considered. All edges are rounded and the walls are painted in soothing shades of green, purple and pink. Mirrors are intentionally hidden away in bathrooms to be accessed only when needed as they can be unsettling for dementia sufferers, and there are medication safes in every room to avoid any confusion. Rooms can be decorated to personal preference (except for anything that might be flammable) but those who choose to stick with Loveday’s standard offering will find their space kitted out with The White Company everything. All the locations have gardens designed with eye-level planters and edible and sweet-smelling plants. The words that guide Geller’s approach are “humanity, common sense and hospitality”.
Loveday is committed to making sure that its members don’t have to lose touch with any aspects of their life which are integral to their sense of self. For example, Geller shared the story of a member who loved to swim, but due to her dementia was unable to continue to do so. The staff worked to find a dementia-friendly pool nearby so she was able to keep pursuing her passion despite her diagnosis. They were able to do something similar for a member who loved bridge but couldn’t find anyone to play with. The Loveday team brought in instructors from Andrew Robson Bridge Club to teach other members of the home the card game so that they could play together. Geller and the team at Loveday have also partnered with the research team at the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory to help support their “Extraordinary Days” programme, which provides fun and evidence-based activities for members and aims to be as inclusive as possible. The activities range from art and music to language and storytelling.