How dementia-friendly is your home environment?
(Hold your mouse on the image to reveal an explanation!)
Are your floors from a matte and non slippery material?
Light easily reflects against a floor into your eyes. This can be disorienting. It is better to have a matte floor that scatters the light.
With dementia your balance and motor skills are effected, a slippery floor can thus be extra dangerous. It is important to make these surfaces more rough or add prevention against slipping.
Do you use signage such as: labels on drawers and icons on the bathroom doors?
When you forget things it helps to be shown clearly where things are. Labels and icons can easily show this. This way you become less dependent on remembering.
Question 03
Do you have grab-bars installed with a contrasting colour to their background?
Contrast makes it easier to recognize the shape of an object. Adding a contrasting colour to a grab bar helps; it becomes easier to see if you are grabbing it correctly.
Question 04
Do you avoid strong patterns?
Your mind uses contrast to recognize shapes (shadows). A flat surface with a strong contrast pattern challenges your mind, because it wants to recognize where it is. With dementia your senses require more effort to do this. This can lead to stress and disorientation.
Question 05
Is there enough light in the rooms?
When you get older your eyes become weaker. A child needs about halve the amount of light (lux) to do the same activity as a grown up and someone of older age easily requires double that amound of light. With dementia your eyes will likely:
- be more blurry
- react slower to light
- have a smaller visual field
- lose peripheral vision
- have difficulty with perceiving depth
Somebody with dementia requires more light, this reduces stress and adds comfort!
Conclusion
If you have answered 4-5 questions with: “Yes”:
Congratulations! Your home is likely already a dementia-friendly environment! If you would like to make it even better we advise a one hour online consultation with us. During this time we will give direct feedback on how to improve your home. If you are interested in this service, please fill in this inquiry !
If you have answered 0-3 questions with: “Yes”:
Your home has a lot to improve and can certainly benefit from our services. That way it can become more dementia-friendly! We advise you to fill in this inquiry to tell us more about your home. Depending on your situation we can send you an offer for our consultation and/or design services!
Contact
Make your home a Dementia Friendly Environment!
Email Ian
IK.CHAPLIN(at)WECARE.HU