Creating a dementia friendly home
Dementia can be scary, both for the person with a diagnosis, and for anyone affected by that diagnosis. It can be caused by a variety of diseases and injuries that affect the brain, bringing memory loss, cognitive decline, and a loss of identity.
When you can’t recognise yourself, it becomes even harder to recognise your surroundings. Home is a great comfort to many people, so losing that sense of place can make this condition feel all the more isolating.
There’s no easy way to manage dementia, but there are adjustments you can make to help with some of its symptoms. Adapting your environment and creating a dementia friendly home helps to promote independence, safety, and encourage the familiarity that was once known.
How does dementia impact your environment?
Dementia causes memory loss and confusion – it’s common for people to forget their sense of place, and they may struggle to understand the function of certain objects. This change in perception often makes people feel unsafe, even in their own home, as familiar surroundings can start to feel strange.
It can also impact our spatial awareness and ability to judge distances, which can create difficulties in using stairs, driving, and moving around the home.
Here are some ways you can incorporate dementia-friendly design into your environment:
Lighting
Good lighting can help reduce the risk of falls, allowing us to navigate our home better. Maximising natural light, by keeping curtains and blinds open, can help regulate circadian rhythms. This supports a regular pattern of bright days and dark nights which can help reset internal clocks and promote better sleep.
In the winter months, it can be helpful to increase artificial light to replicate this effect. Reflections from mirrors and dark shadows can be disorientating and upsetting for someone with dementia, so brighter lighting can help reduce this confusion.
Other design additions can include dimmer switches, bright light therapy, and automatic light sensors, which can help prevent night-time falls.
Colour and noise
Poor lighting also contributes to vision difficulties, which can become severe with dementia and lead to problems with depth perception and contrast sensitivity. It can become harder to distinguish between objects of different colours, and recognising different backgrounds.
Some design changes to the home can include using high contrasting colours to differentiate different objects – for example, choosing a red toilet seat can help those with dementia recognise the toilet from the rest of the bathroom. Bright coloured post-it notes can also help by providing reminders and being easier to read against more neutral backgrounds.
Problems with vision often coincide with hearing loss, so it’s also important to filter background noise. Laminate and vinyl flooring can be particularly noisy as it can create more of an echo, which can make it harder to use hearing aids effectively. A plain, non-patterned carpet can help to absorb sound, whilst providing a warmer, softer surface compared to hard flooring.
Assistive technology
Dementia-friendly design can also be improved with technology, and there are many household items now being made specifically for those with dementia. Assistive technology can include electronic pill boxes, which can remind you to take your medication, fall sensors, which can detect falls and alert caregivers, and adapted telephones, making it easier to call loved ones.
It’s often best to introduce assistive technology as early as possible, as it helps individuals with dementia become familiar with the items, leading to better future recognition.
You can buy these devices yourself, but some local areas have places where you can get advice and try out devices before buying them, and you can also refer to this helpful technology guide by Alzheimer’s society.
It’s worth saying that these changes shouldn’t be made overnight – sudden change can be frightening, and it’s important to gradually adapt your environment in a way that minimises confusion. This change can be overwhelming, and dementia is a difficult condition to manage, but you are not alone. For help and support, please contact us.
