Transcript Supportive Environments - Alzheimer's Association

Creating a Safe and Friendly
Place for a Person with
Dementia
Look, Listen & Feel
Looking at the Role the
Environment Has on Abilities &
Behavior
Supportive Environments
• Include 2 Factors
– What you LIKE…
Supportive Environments
• Include 2 Factors
– What you LIKE…
– What’s GOOD for you!
Supportive Environments
The 3 Positive P’s
• Physical Environment
• People—the ways they act and
respond
• Programming
Finding Balance
• Support or impair
• Too much or too little
The Supportive Sensory
Environment
• What you Hear
• What you See
• What you Smell/Taste
• What you Feel
What you Hear
Supports
• Quiet
Impairs
• Purposeful music
• Constant
background noise
• Intrusive sounds
• Familiar cues
• Care noise
• Positive human
sounds
• Negative human
noise
What we See
Can you See?
Supports
Impairs
• Bright light
• Dim light
• Non-Glare light
• Inconsistent light
• Directed at work
area
• Glaring light
• Directed up-diffused
• Light in eyes
What can you SEE?
• Visual Cues
• Too much
• Too little
Visual Cues
• Where to be
• What to do
• Orienting to place
• Orienting to task
Too Much
• Dangerous items
• Clutter
• Too Busy
• Where’s the focus
Too Little
• Sterile or Cold
• Hidden cues
• Lack of contrast
What we Smell/Taste
• Affects…
– Appetite
– Social interactions
– Quality of life
Support
Impair
• Food
• Waste odors
• Calming scents
• Medicinal odors
• Stimulating scents
• Cleaning odors
• Perfumes
What you FEEL
• Temperature
• Surfaces
• Spaces
Temperature
• Very individual
• Older/colder?
• Disease states
• Type of activity
Surfaces
Support
Impair
• Safe and stable
• Very mobile
• Right height
• Dangerous to touch
• Flexible
• “Functional”
• Activity based
Spaces
• Familiar
• Friendly
• Functional
• Forgiving
Supportive Environment
• What you LIKE
• What you NEED
• Would you?
Can You See Why….
Environments
Can
Support Life!
Use them Wisely
One Story…
• What NEEDED to change in the
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT…
• 1st - the LIGHTS
• And the EXIT DOOR
How it was… the Activity
Room
The Nurse’s Station - The
FORTRESS
The ‘Kitchen’...
Why the Lights?
• Because the amount of light needed to see
the same amount increases with age
• Because lack of light increases fall risk
• Because lack of light keeps people from
using their hands
• Because lack of light limits oral intake
• Because lack of light is depressing
Add Lights...
BETTER … but still a FORTRESS!
Creating People Space
Why the EXIT?
• It was either a DEAD END and people
got stuck there … OR
• People wanted to leave with visitors
• People saw the door and tried to go
out
• People followed others off the unit
• There was nothing else down that hall
but a way out….
Instead … a Bookshelf
Then WHAT????
• What else is NOT working????
• What is not helping?
• What feels wrong?
What are the MAIN
problems?
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Flooring - looks like holes
Glare - from the windows
Lack of definition - what’s this place for?
Work surfaces - what can I do here?
Furniture - Where can I visit?
No conversational spaces - ‘line-up’
On the edges - not the focus of space...
Instead … a Fun ‘to be’ Place
Instead … a Meaningful Place
The fortress comes down...
Better … but a little cold
looking
A Dining Space & Place
Activity Space without
definition
Making dedicated space...
Look at it NOW!
What does it say?
Environment in USE!
The nurse’s station is in it’s
place --- supporting care
NOT being the center of it!
Not a fortress… a Place to
be
Now for the GEMS…
Diamonds
Emeralds
Ambers
Rubies
Pearls
[email protected]
• Gems slide show