Is bad care home design leading to a rise in your dementia residents’ deaths?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Compared to people without dementia, dementia residents are 3x more likely to die in as little as six months from accidents that occur due to bad design (University of Stirling).
With an increasing elderly population, around 280,000 people with dementia now live in care homes across the UK (www.alzheimers.org.uk). This number combined with the shocking statistics surrounding dementia deaths begs the question as to whether the interior of these care homes should be designed with dementia patients in mind.
Here at Catalyst Interiors we believe that care home interior design for dementia patients is essential. We specialise in interior design for dementia care homes and we are only 100% satisfied when we know that our interiors have contributed to the enhanced quality of life for the residents.
In fact, we believe so strongly in this that all our staff have undertaken dementia training so that they fully understand the importance of attention to detail when it comes to designing interiors for dementia residents. We know our designers are already the best at what they do and so the training just ensures that within their design, they incorporate every sensory and visual aid, every supportive item that stimulates the senses and enjoyment of the residents whose homes we are proud to design the interiors of.
High quality dementia-enabling design can be achieved by following the seven basic design principles. These design principles allow us to create spaces that dementia patients can feel comfortable in, allowing for a happier more fulfilled life.
We have already covered the negative impacts that bad design can have and so we feel it is equally important to share with you the positive impacts that good care home interior design can have. Statistics from a recent American study show that good design leads to:
- 71% fewer falls in corridors
- 3% of residents with recorded weight loss compared to 13% before.
- Less help at mealtimes.
- 60% reduction in reported physical aggression.
- Medication for aggression and agitation reduced from 20 times to once a week.
- More quality time with residents.
So hopefully this gives a little insight into what we do and why it is so important!
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