How to create practical and comfortable spaces in care homes using dementia design
A well-designed environment can help feelings of comfort and security by promoting independence, personal identity, enhancing confidence and self-esteem while allowing required care tasks to take place in a dignified way. This might sound like an overwhelming list, but it is easily achievable.
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To start with, DSDC would recommend avoiding creating a ‘dementia wing’ or ‘household’. It’s likely that many residents who arrive without dementia will develop it during their stay. You want to avoid moving rooms for people with a dementia; they should ideally retain one bedroom throughout their residency. A dementia inclusive design is best to be incorporated throughout the building: this will cater for residents who may not have dementia but have impairments of ageing such as sight, and hearing, or mobility issues.
It’s important to create spaces for residents which draw on a sense of homeliness and familiarity. It can be a balancing act, but avoiding clinical environments is best as they can be distressing or evoke negative feelings which bring back bad memories. Allowing residents to bring their own furniture and meaningful items will aid familiarity and helps them to settle in.
You can reinforce personal identity through personal objects and familiar fixtures and fittings. For example, focusing on personalisation of the bedroom entrance to differentiate from a corridor of similar doorways and aid wayfinding.
When it comes to fitting out bedrooms, the obvious place to start is: does the room look comfortable? It needs to be welcoming in addition to the other well thought out elements. For instance, it’s worth thinking about the flooring in wet rooms. Stippled safety floors in wet rooms can be very uncomfortable underfoot for the thinning skin of an older person. What about acoustic comfort? The right flooring, ceilings, wall panels, artwork and soft furnishings help absorb reverberation, avoid auditory overstimulation, and aid conversation.
For those who are not able to move around, it’s important to provide a room with a view, something absorbing to look at such as a busy streetscape or garden.
There should also be a choice of spaces available within the home, such as an activity room, a quiet room and outdoor space. Residents need to be able to continue to take part in hobbies and interests as well as daily living activities. This could be anything from a baking or gardening group through to being able to hang up the washing.
To support this, you need to ensure to reduce physical and perceived barriers to allow free movement and access throughout the care home. Residents shouldn’t have to be escorted through a restricted access point into a lift to go down a level to enjoy some outdoor space.
Thinking about the layout, how residents will use the space, and the fixtures and finishes is important to ensure you are able to support and maintain their independence, personal identity, confidence, and self-esteem.
Dementia design does not need to cost any more to achieve practical levels of finishes, plus, what is good design for an ageing population is good design for everyone.
It’s worth remembering that while creating a space that is inclusive for people living with a dementia, you also need to have staff who are appropriately trained in dementia and your building too. Only then, when you have an inclusive space, and well-trained staff will they work in harmony to provide residents with true comfort and care while retaining all of the required practicalities.
DSDC can help you achieve your organisations’ goals and objectives when it comes to creating dementia inclusive environments and care. Contact us today at dementia@stir.ac.uk to find out how we can support you.
