Attractive colors, improved design and easier ability for people with dementia to spend safe time outdoors: Memory care residences are trying to create more-engaging living spaces. Some offer alternatives to long hallways lined by rooms — hallmarks of traditional long-term care facilities. And they’re protecting people at risk of wandering while recognizing their need to enjoy nature and move about freely.
[See: Beyond Bingo: Innovative Activities at Today’s Nursing Homes.]
Making a Home
At St. John’s Home in Rochester, New York, “what’s most innovative is its normalcy,” says Mimi DeVinney, a dementia quality of life specialist. Two houses are separated by a shared backyard. Elders — the preferred term for the 20 residents there — can relax in the small gazebo or walk next door to sit on the living room couch. While elders have freedom to move about the premises on their own, secured fencing prevents them from leaving.
The emphasis on home living continues indoors. The centralized floor plan allows staff members to better keep an eye on people at risk of falls or other safety issues, DeVinney says. Bedrooms are located around core living, kitchen and dining areas, instead of down standard corridors with distant corners. Front and back porches are easily visible.
St. John’s Home partners with the Green House Project, a nonprofit consulting group with the stated goal of transforming long-term care. With 10 elders residing in each St. John’s house, it’s easier to foster a family-like environment than in larger facilities.
“Smaller is better” is a guiding value, says Susan Ryan, senior director of the Green House Project. It’s about creating spaces and a place that feels like a real home, she says, “similar to what we may have found in our community. Similar to what we’ve lived in.”
In the central dining area, everyone sits around a single table for meals. Houses take on their own personalities, DeVinney says, as personal family photos and knickknacks show up in common living areas. During the holidays, long-treasured family decorations appear for all to see.
You won’t see any medicine carts in the hallway, DeVinney adds. Instead, everybody has a medicine cabinet in their room, for the nurse to come in and access. “So it doesn’t have a lot of those trappings of a nursing home,” she says.
[See: 14 Ways to Protect Seniors From Falls.]
Tweaking Surroundings
If you’ve ever toured memory care facilities to find the right place for your loved one, you might have noticed a certain sameness. First, there’s the somewhat fusty sitting room including a bookcase with faded hardbound editions and a side table topped with a retro radio.
Nostalgia-evoking displays throughout the halls — such as workbench stations or wooden coat racks draped with glamorous dresses from a distant era — are meant to stir residents’ memories. Personal touches like family photo cases near the entrances of their rooms brighten otherwise unremarkable hallways.
Memory care facilities provide safe, calm and comfortable surroundings for residents. However, adding brighter touches could make these places feel livelier and more attractive, one creative expert suggests.
Bland, beige and inoffensive: “I think we design down to memory care,” says interior designer Kathy Bradway, who worked with senior-living facilities for several years. At first, fresh colors or patterns were vetoed by her long-term care clients, says Bradway, who is now based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
A checkerboard pattern could enliven bathroom tiles on memory-care units, Bradway suggested. However, she was initially told the different-colored squares might be overstimulating to a few residents. Her solution: “Why not have one or two rooms with plain tiles rather than every room?”
Wall colors presented another issue. Because people see more yellow as they get older, Bradway says, gray is often chosen as the common denominator for institutional living. Instead, she says, using green or yellow paint enhances colors as visualized by seniors. Coral blended with a bit of yellow makes a nice combination, she adds.
“Colors should be alive and be inspirational,” Bradway says. “We bucked the tide and we did it successfully and the residents loved it.”
The ideal time for families to request paint colors, window treatments and other design choices for individual units is before moving in, Bradway says. “You can say, ‘This is important to my mom,'” she suggests. “Negotiate for what you want.”
[See: How Music Helps People With Alzheimer’s Disease.]
Stimulating the Senses
Engaging all five senses helps seniors get more from memory care, says Laura Busalacchi, senior director of interior services for Brookdale Senior Living. To that end, the nationwide company is making indoor changes like transforming functional tub rooms into pampering spas. Warmed towels, soothing music, aromatherapy and water motifs in serene greens and blues provide stimulation through at least four senses of sight, touch, smell and sound.
In common areas and rooms, Busalacchi says, “We’ve been doing more bold colors on the walls [and] introducing patterns to the floor, where in past history it was more multicolored, nondescript carpeting.” Gently contrasting patterns are also appearing. Accent paint is being used to create borders and provide visual cues at certain spaces, like doorways where residents’ individual units meet common areas.
Some of the company’s freestanding memory care properties include completely enclosed courtyards that make it easier for active people to go outdoors safely. Residents also enjoy interacting with a large, electronic touch screen that lets them play music or “visit” the countryside.
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Memory Care Innovations Can Help People Feel More at Home originally appeared on usnews.com
