It was a pleasure to meet Oscar Lustin, co-founder of Domani in France, in Father Popieluszko House in Acton, London, UK, which is operated by Abbeyfield London Polish Society.
Domani has designed a housing scheme for older people in France that is quite similar to the traditional Abbeyfield model. Its key focus is to provide homely and friendly communities for elderly people to live independently and to enjoy both companionship and support whenever it is necessary.
Oscar's visit provided us with a unique chance to exchange ideas on the issues of the housing for older people in France, England and Poland. We touched on many topics such as funding, properties, staff, regulations and other issues related to operation of residential houses in those countries, identifying similarities and dissimilarities between our approaches and the problems we face.
We also talked about some specific features of running successful communities such as high occupancy rates and plans for further investments in property. However, the main issue we focused on is creating friendly atmosphere in houses.
The international aspect of the visit was particularly evident due to the long-standing association between the Abbeyfield London Polish Society and its Abbeyfield home in Poland. Oscar was keen to visit the Abbeyfield Polish homes in the future, while he also invited Abbeyfield colleagues to visit France and see the Domani approach.
It was also interesting to learn more about the background of Domani itself. Oscar mentioned that Domani was named Best Social Business in France, which resulted in the pro bono international benchmarking project with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the course of the work, the name of Abbeyfield was cited as an important international reference for community-based housing for older people.
A big thank you to Barbara and everyone at the Abbeyfield London Polish Society for the warm welcome – and for the hospitality and food!
The visit turned out to be a fascinating exchange of ideas and experiences and a reminder that even if the approaches to housing and care vary from country to country, the values upon which they are based remain the same.
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