The environment of dementia care homes :
People with dementia can experience a changed perception, often resulting in visual misinterpretation and disorientation. For example, a dark patterned carpet can be perceived as a hole in the floor, and white and cream colors of walls and floors can all blend into click here one. These perceptions can cause individuals to feel anxious, confused, agitated, and distressed. Each Step, Blake ley, is a dementia-friendly care home designed to meet the needs of people living with dementia and to ensure that emotional well-being is achieved for each of its residents. The director of quality and standards for community integrated care at Each Step. Sue talks us through how Each Step has created its environment for people with dementia, as there are various approaches they can take.
Simple changes to create a more dementia-friendly environment can positively impact a person living with dementia’s emotional well-being and independence. Each Step is a new concept for community integrated care. They wanted to create an environment specifically for people with dementia. The environment they created at Each Step looked at the best practice for people with dementia, what creates a sense of calm, and what reduces people’s agitation.
The environment can click here a significant impact on people living with dementia. It’s very much around the environment, bright, light, and airy. They focused very much on not having very bold, dark patterns. People with dementia can often interpret hectic patterns as somebody looking at them or something jumping out at them, increasing people’s agitation and restlessness. So they wanted color; they wanted contrast because people with dementia can relate to contrasting colors.
Corridors in dementia care homes :
Each corridor has a themed area click here; some are photographs of actors and film scenes. As people wander around, it gives a topic of conversation; they can point out the pictures, and if there’s a staff member with that individual, the conversation can start, and they can discuss the old films that people have seen. They have memory boxes for each individual, and what that is, it’s just a box on the wall that people can put in photographs or ornaments, anything that might allow them to remember ‘this is mine’ and ‘this is my bedroom.’ Along the corridors, we have sideboards that have different colored handles.
They are strategically placed in the corridors, and as people wander around, they’re drawn to the contrasting colors; they can open the drawers and rummage in the drawers; again, it’s an activity they can do. Still, it breaks up the journey along the corridor as well. They chose block-colored curtains, fabrics, and carpets because often, having multiple colors creates an illusion of either a hole or a shadow, increasing people’s confusion. They chose signage for toilets and other areas with both the picture and the words. Sometimes individuals can relate more to the picture; others can relate more to the word. They chose mirrors and glass that weren’t reflective because that’s very important to people with dementia. If they’re looking at something that’s reflecting again, it’s creating an object or a shadow, and people with dementia need to be able to see out into the garden to have lots of natural light.