The Mayor of Douglas Jon Joughin opened a new unit at Sunnydale Residential Home on Broadway which has been specially designed for younger people with mobility problems, the first of its kind in the island.

The new unit occupies a whole floor in the home, accessible by lift, and it has been named Sunflower Way.

Julie Clarke, project manager for Pearl Healthcare which owns the home, explained that it is intended for people under the age of 65 whose mobility problems mean that they are no longer able to cope at home.

She said: ’We are anticipating that it will be people who have had strokes. At the moment they often end up in nursing homes because there is nowhere else for them.

’I used to work in the stroke unit and I know how hard the stroke team work to get their mobility back, then they go into a nursing home and lose it all.

’The idea started because we had some empty rooms and we were looking at how best we could serve the needs of the community.’

The new unit has five single rooms and one double room, all ensuite and all with kettles, fridges and WiFi. There is also a community room with a toaster and kettle so that residents can make their own breakfast.

’There will be staff there to help but we are hoping that the clients themselves will run the unit as they want it,’ said Julie.

The rooms are also kitted out with the latest Google mini home which uses voice commands to carry out a number of functions including turning on lights and turning off the TV. Staff can also put messages into the system, such as reminders to take tablets.

Julie said: ’We knew that if we were going to do this we wanted to do it right so that it would be a flagship unit. We’ve had lots of support from Pearl Healthcare who gave us everything we asked for.

’People have been showing an interest already which has surprised us. We’re thrilled with it.’

Opening the new unit Councillor Joughin said Sunflower Way was a ’much needed’ and welcome addition to care provision in Douglas and would ensure clients could live independently in the community and so were not isolated by their disability.

In closing he wished Sunnydale’s manager Caroline Hughes and project manager Julie Clarke and their colleagues every success with the new venture.