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 EnvironmentsThe 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 Impairs• Quiet

• Purposeful music

• Familiar cues

• Positive human sounds

• Constant background noise

• Intrusive sounds

• Care noise

• Negative human noise

What we See

Can you See?

Supports Impairs• Bright light

• Non-Glare light

• Directed at work area

• Directed up-diffused

• Dim light

• Inconsistent light

• Glaring light

• 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

• Calming scents

• Stimulating scents

• Waste odors

• Medicinal odors

• Cleaning odors

• Perfumes

What you FEEL• Temperature

• Surfaces

• Spaces

Temperature• Very individual

• Older/colder?

• Disease states

• Type of activity

SurfacesSupport Impair• Safe and stable

• Right height

• Flexible

• Activity based

• Very mobile

• Dangerous to touch

• “Functional”

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?

• 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…

DiamondsEmeraldsAmbersRubiesPearls

teepas@posapproach.com• Gems slide show