Dementia Facility Design in Support of Residents and Staff
Professor Ian Forbes
Professor Lyn Chenowyth
Richard Fleming
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
(Click to download full paper)
This paper will describe the result of a survey conducted in New South Wales, Australia, to determine the outcomes of simple alterations made to a variety of existing dementia specific facilities with the intention of supporting the staff thorough non-pharmaceutical approaches in their objective of increased use of People Centred Care (PCC).
Background
Typically successful treatments for people living with dementia have used a mix of pharmacological treatments (for anxiety, depression, cognitive ability, etc) and non-pharmacological treatments (communications, behaviour, activation, etc). Of the non-pharmacological treatments two approaches stand out. The first is an appropriate and responsive communication approach intended to mediate the effects of the brain losses and support retained memories. The second treatment is the use of evidence-based environmental treatments. Evidence from trials indicate that specific characteristics of the physical environment help with reducing symptoms allowing the environmental design characteristics to provide natural mapping and memory cues (Zeisal et al).
Methodology
The project involves 30 facilities assessed according to a Dementia Specific Evaluation Tool developed by researchers. A baseline assessment identifies the level of compliance with 10 key aspects of spaces and an understanding of the impact this will have on behaviour of dementia residents. The dementia specific units are assigned randomly to three streams in which impacts of the alterations made to the units are evaluated.
These are: one stream undertaking PCC, one with alterations but no PCC and one with no intervention.
Benefits derived from the research
- Demonstration of the relationship between physical environments, care models and the health outcomes for dementia
- Validation of the design requirements described for physical facility requirements under the Australian Commonwealth Government Accreditation of Aged Care Facilities, 2008
- Development of planning and policy guidelines concerning what should be provided in aged care design
- Development of information and training packages for staff and developers of facilities to improve the quality of built space and better understanding of the use of those spaces by staff and families
- Generally to create an improvement in the physical support for the staff and the consequent reduction of stress for both staff and residents
- Show the potential for reduced costs of care through less staff and the variance of staff and reduced absenteeism
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