A care home for veterans is celebrating a £100,000 grant to enhance the quality of life for its residents.
Karen Miller, chief executive of Broughton House Veteran Care Village in Salford, said the Army Benevolent Fund’s award is helping the home to deliver its mission to enable residents ‘to live their best life in their later years’.
“The ABF has been tremendous in providing Broughton House with substantial financial support for many years, and we are incredibly grateful for the latest grant,” she said.
“Our veterans sacrificed so much to serve our country and preserve our freedoms, and this much-needed funding enables us to help them live their best life in their later years, in comfort and dignity in a vibrant, engaging home, by investing in activities and equipment and supporting our staff to further improve the service we offer.
“We simply could not afford to do this if we relied solely on local authority care home fees, upon which many of our veterans depend.”
The funding is being used to enhance dementia care, including by providing additional specialist training for staff and an improved menu designed for veterans with the condition, devised by hospitality services manager Steve Rossiter.
It also enables Broughton House to offer more activities at the home and in the community, including coffee mornings with serving forces personnel, celebrating occasions such as VE Day and D-Day, attending veteran breakfast clubs around the region and visiting attractions such as the Imperial War Museum North.
The ABF’s support also means Broughton House can offer a wide-ranging social schedule, including concerts, film nights, art classes and dementia-friendly games, and services which improve the health and mobility of veterans, such as its gym, physiotherapy and chiropody.
Army Benevolent Fund chief executive Tim Hyams, who visited the home to view the facilities and see first-hand how the grant is being used, said:
“It was an enormous pleasure to meet some of the residents at Broughton House, who are looked after with such evident care and warmth by the whole team there.
“It is a wonderful environment in which elderly veterans, many with dementia, and their families, are supported holistically and on an individual, bespoke basis. The ABF is delighted to fund Broughton House and ensure this ongoing care for elderly and vulnerable veterans, and their families, in the north west.”
Broughton House has cared for more than 8,000 veterans since it opened its doors to the ex-service community in 1916. It is the only home offering veteran-specific residential, nursing, specialist dementia and respite care in the north west.
More than half of its residents are army veterans, including some who served in World War Two and other conflicts such as the Korean War.
Most have memory loss or dementia and could not live safely at home, as they struggled to manage their personal care and keep themselves nourished. Most were previously cared for at home by a spouse or relative.
Following redevelopment, Broughton House now has a 64-bed care home, including two 16-bed households dedicated to veterans with dementia, as well as six independent living apartments.
In a survey taken in 2023, 93 per cent of family members said their loved ones’ quality of life had improved since they moved into Broughton House, and 79 per cent said their own mental wellbeing had improved.
