"At IRT we have modified environments so the staff can see the residents much more easily from where they spend most of their time, allowing them to respond to the concerns of the residents from a position of calmness and control.”
Modification of IRT dementia care units based on Professor Fleming’s design principles include:
- Installation of life-like garden murals to hide walls, fences and secure doors
- Renovations to improve resident and staff sightlines between rooms and the garden
- Introduction of natural light
- Colour coding of walls and skirting boards to minimise falls
- The use of intuitive visual cues to identify corridors and the dining area
- Personalised door decals on residents’ bedrooms that replicate the appearance of the front doors of their former family homes so they know which room is theirs.
As a result of these environmental modifications, IRT’s Flametree Lodge has reported decreased agitation and frustration in residents living with dementia, and a reduction in use of anti-depressant medication. Staff morale has been boosted and the number of compliments from residents’ families has increased.
“I’ve been involved in environmental design work since 1986. That’s a very long time,” Professor Fleming says. “In 1986 there was very little attention given to the environment of people living with dementia, or indeed the staff caring for them. I’m happy to say that those days are now gone, certainly in Australia.”
The next step is for the environmental design principles to be introduced into the homes of people living with dementia so that they can remain living independently for longer.
“We are on a journey in dementia care,” says Professor Fleming. “A journey from the old institutional days, through the days of specialised dementia care units, to a time in the not-too-distant future where people living with dementia will be cared for in their own homes in the communities they are used to living in.”
All of the principles outlined by Professor Fleming are included in the DTA Handbook, which provides a whole set of tools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of an environment so that providers can audit existing stock and systematically change environments for the better.
www.dta.com.au