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Insights & Solutions

Get the latest trends, tools, and resources for improving healthcare environments here. Browse our many free and members-only resources, including research reports and issue briefs, interviews, case studies, design strategies, lessons learned, key point summaries, and webinars.

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Tool

Dementia-Supportive Environments: Considerations

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. 
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Design Strategies

Aging and Dementia 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.
Webinar

The Building as a Therapeutic Tool: Creating a Children’s Treatment Center

February 2020 ∘ Webinar ∘
​This webinar highlights a case study of the ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development and explores how the design caused the building itself to become a tool for therapy, learning, and teaching.
Webinar

Adapting Existing Healthcare Spaces to Suit Behavioral Health Requirements
February 2020 ∘ Webinar ∘
This webinar will focus on the adaptation of an existing space into a behavioral health-compliant facility and the unique approach utilized to ensure organizational success. Presenters will explore how the design process resulted in an environment that maintains the maximum safety and security that these spaces require.
Executive Summary

Memory Care: The Intersection of Aging and Mental Health

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.
Issue Brief

Memory Care: The Intersection of Aging and Mental Health

February 2020 ∘ Issue Brief ∘
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

Spero Academy, Minneapolis, MN
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

The Spaces In-between: Changing Policy by Design

October 2019 ∘ Webinar ∘
In this webinar join an architect/researcher team in exploring how and why we can share diverse experiences in order to effect greater change, both nationally and internationally, to create more supportive environments for a population with increasing needs.
Webinar

Lighting Design for Behavioral Health Environments
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

Behavioral Health Crisis Stabilization Unit: A Solution to an Overcrowded ED
July 2019 ∘ Webinar ∘
This webinar will examine the Behavioral Health Crisis Stabilization Unit as a case study, including direct outcomes achieved by the project. Since opening, the unit has had a positive effect on the ED, lessening mental health patients in the ED and decreasing the psychiatric inpatient admission rates for patients.