The physical environment can play a significant role in
maximizing independence for people with dementia. The following are therapeutic goals:
1.
Ensure safety and security. Safety includes preventing access to toxic
substances and sharp objects, providing staff to walk with residents who are
unsteady, and eliminating fall hazards.
Security includes providing safe, secured areas to walk, and using
devices to deter people from entering unsafe places, and mitigating sudden loud
noises that can be startling.
2.
Support functional ability through meaningful
activity. The design of the space should
allow for getting to the activities that are meaningful to people with dementia
by providing good lighting, safe floor surfaces, and handrails for support.
3.
Provide heightened awareness and
orientation. This includes providing a
clear path to destinations and adequate cues and landmarks to help people get
where they want to go, displaying personal memorabilia at unit entrances, providing
access to outdoors and windows to see the outdoors which with orienting to time
and season.
4.
Provide appropriate environmental stimulation
and challenge. Sensory deprivation can
be as debilitating as too much stimulation.
The design should provide sensory and social stimulation and interest
without overstimulation. Texture,
pattern, and color can be introduced, but it must be done in a skillful way
with an understanding of dementia.
5.
Develop a positive social milieu. Settings should provide opportunities for
both passive and active socializing.
Seating can offer a view to the outside and activities, or to actively
engage in conversation. Window views of
people leaving the property, however, may stimulate residents to leave
themselves.
6.
Maximize autonomy and control. Access to safe and secure outdoor areas gives
residents options. The opportunity to
make decisions about the décor of their unit allows offer residents more
control.
7.
Adapt to changing needs. Characteristics of dementia patients change
over time, so the environment must adapt.
8.
Establish links to the healthy and
familiar. Fireplaces, comfy seating, and
other links to home and the past help provide comfort and familiarity.
9.
Respect the need for privacy. People should have an opportunity to choose
from a variety of spaces to spend time just as they did in their previous
homes. Shared bedrooms or large rooms
don’t offer a place to be alone with special friends or family, whereas a small
private niche with a table and two chairs can provide an intimate space for
visiting.
10.
Encourage family involvement. Settings that encourage family members to
visit and participate are important.
Statement Design Studios specializes in interior design for
senior housing projects. Learn more at www.statementdesignstudio.com
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