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Insights & Solutions

    Tool
    March 2020 Tool

    Understanding the personal abilities and unique challenges faced by aging individuals, especially those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, better equips design teams to create supportive care and living spaces. Changes that can be credited to dementia are noticeably different from the changes typical of normal aging, but both can occur at the same time. 

    Design Strategies
    March 2020 Design Strategies

    Understanding the personal abilities and unique challenges faced by aging individuals, especially those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, better equips design teams to create supportive living spaces. Devising goals that target single symptoms and objectives is not always practical, however, because changes associated with aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias tend to appear in “clusters” rather than in isolation. The design-based evidence associated with designing supportive memory care settings results in 12 programmatic design strategies.

    Executive Summary
    February 2020 Executive Summary

    Learn about: the personal abilities and unique challenges faced by aging individuals, including those living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, how thoughtful design can reduce stress associated with declining physical abilities, memory loss, and care provision.

    EDAC Advocate Firm Project
    December 2019 EDAC Advocate Firm Project

    The primary goal of this project was to apply the evidence-based design process to inform the design of the new school building. The transdisciplinary team evaluated current research pertaining to the student population, conducted focus groups with staff, and planned a formal study to test hypothesized outcomes in the new space compared to the old space.

    Webinar
    October 2019 Webinar

     In this webinar, two lighting experts will address innovative behavioral health lighting design strategies, review case studies and current research, and offer how you can adapt lessons learned to provide friendlier environments for residents, staff and families.

    Webinar
    June 2018 Webinar

    This webinar explores how the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pursued a vision to develop a new pediatric patient care unit: one that would meet the requirements and licensure of an acute care unit, but would provide a safe and supportive environment for patients with a comorbid developmental, behavioral, or psychiatric diagnosis. 

    Interview
    February 2018 Interview

    Learn about how the design of a new psychiatric facility strives to normalize mental illness through carefully chosen materials with the goal of creating a “homey,” non-institutional setting, why private patient rooms will be included in the new final building as an important part of the design concept, and how research helped shape the architects’ beliefs that the built environment should support patients’ dignity and independence as part of the recovery process.

    Interview
    February 2018 Interview

    Inside you will learn about: why behavioral health facilities have very different design requirements than general hospitals; how different areas of a behavioral health unit have different safety needs that influence design choices; and which types of safety measures and products should be incorporated into behavioral health units.

    Interview
    April 2017 Interview

    Learn about: the importance of using durable products and finishes in senior living environments, the key to designing a functional and effective senior living environment, and how manufacturers, designers, and industry leaders collaborate to improve the lives of the aging population.

    Lessons Learned
    April 2017 Lessons Learned

    The following are compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of aging populations.