Keywords

dementia care, design principles, person-centered care, physical environment

 

Authors

  1. GEBOY, LYN PHD

Abstract

This article describes a set of environmental design principles that can be implemented in the physical setting by elder and dementia care staff. Design principles are general "rules of thumb," normative statements that guide aesthetic, functional, or compositional decisions. Although most design principles are intended for use by a professional design audience, there is no reason why design principles cannot be used by design laypersons such as elder and dementia care staff. These research-informed design principles are intended to guide care staff's efforts in creating supportive physical environments that balance the physical and psychosocial accommodation of program participants/residents and programming requirements within a person-centered care context.