"Dementia Care Homes can and should be better places to live, work and visit."
Peter Rose, founder of Find Memory Care and now of The Care Home Designer has a track record of successful design for dementia care settings.
"One thing that's been invaluable is our set of Essential Design Principles. Consistently observed, they've been reliable time and time again when applied to the dozens of effective and widely used dementia-specific designs I've created over the last decade."
Using what we refer to as Resident Focused Informed Design (RFID) we're applying these Design Principles to effect really positive change on care home environments as a whole, and they're free to download here for anyone who wants to use them.
What is RFID?
Resident Focused Informed Design, whilst largely self-explanatory, is worthy of a little more explanation;
-
Resident Focused, because everything we do will benefit residents and never be to their cost.
It's obvious that a better designed environment, driven by a need to address challenges created by dementia, will make an altogether better place to live.
We also take into account the demands on the people who work there, and making their job less challenging and more rewarding as a result of better design has a positive effect on residents too.
Then there's the benefits to the business - amongst other things, good design helps the home deliver better standards of care, making it a more attractive place for new residents and supporting full occupancy. This in turn provides resources for achieving higher standards that result in a better experience for staff and residents. -
Informed, has two meanings. Firstly, the people who deliver the services of The Care Home Designer all have an interest in better outcomes in dementia care and are informed about the condition and what it means.
Secondly, the process we follow for every new project is to become thoroughly informed about the people, property and location in which we're working. This involves spending time with staff, residents, managers, owners and visitors where possible, to learn about the ambitions and opportunities for meaningful improvements. Without this we'd be rolling out a one-size-fits-all solution which will never be as successful as a truly tailored, informed solution. - Design, with an experienced product and interior design team we can deliver better results that will benefit all stake holders, and most importantly of course, the residents.