Building a fitting memorial

Proceeds from one of Cork City’s most lucrative land sales — the bequest of a farmer — have culminated in a €10m investment and pioneering education centre for the care of the elderly.

It’s a gift that will go on giving, benefiting thousands of people.

Against a backdrop of a forecast of 100,000 dementia cases by 2020, St Luke’s home in Mahon, Cork, has invested heavily in research and teaching for new community and family supports.

The vision to support carers (official care beds will only cater for a fraction of cases) was adopted by the home in recent years, and was hugely facilitated by an 11-acre land gift by the late Sidney Northridge, a farmer on Cork’s airport hill.

The land made €27.5m in the boom.

Now, Northridge House — officially opened last month by President Michael D Higgins — is to be used as a resource-and-education centre for those in the caring professions as well as family members looking after older people in the home.

It offers full- and part-time courses in self-care, skills on manual handling, courses in coping with changes in behaviour, mindfulness and stress management, communication, art therapy, coping with loss, and is used by those from Cork, Munster, and further afield.

The 10,000 sq ft Northridge House, with facilities for gatherings of up to 200 persons, completes a circa €10m development programme that included the rebuilding of St Luke’s home’s day-care centre, an extended alzheimer/dementia unit, administration, and other necessary services.

Its director of education is Bruce Pierce, and architects were Frank Murphy and Partners.

Mr Pierce says “we believe that education is transformative and that by investment in education, people are changed. Like the ripple of the stone in the pond, if we can give people who work in nursing homes skills, they bring those back and others benefit from them — the residents and their families”.

Details: www.stlukeshome.ie