Need for dementia-friendly buildings highlighted ELEANOR HALL: Dementia experts are calling for a change in the design of public buildings and spaces to make them more accessible to Australias aging population. Today in Melbourne a new facility showcased some of the simple design ideas which can be incorporated into buildings to make them more dementia friendly. Simon Lauder has our report. SIMON LAUDER: Visual cues are an important way to jog the memories of people with dementia. Meg Willis has been an aged care worker for eight years. She says people with can also become confused or disoriented by the wrong visual cues. Even the pattern on an aged care workers uniform can get in the way of caring for people with dementia. MEG WILLIS: Ive had residents, people that I work with, look at me quite strangely if Im wearing, say, a shirt with spots on it. Those spots can actually be seen as something else completely. Or it can detract a person from being able to focus on what youre actually asking them to do. SIMON LAUDER: Youre saying it can make a big difference in how easy your job is? MEG WILLIS: Absolutely. We need to be able to see what it is like through the eyes of the person living with dementia, to be able to appreciate how difficult it can be. SIMON LAUDER: Alzheimers Australia is now using computer game technology in an attempt to give people an example of what its like to have dementia. JAMES BONNER: So Im going to try and open this door to get into my bathroom and… SIMON LAUDER: One of the creators is James Bonner. JAMES BONNER: …Ive got the wrong door. SIMON LAUDER: The computer simulation will be used to show families and aged care workers what dementia can be like. It was launched this morning at the new Victorian headquarters of Alzheimers Australia. The head of Alzheimers Australia Victoria, Maree McCabe, says the building is designed to showcase whats called a dementia friendly environment. MAREE MCCABE: Often people with dementia have perceptual disturbances. And the thing that we do in modern homes and modern organisations is we tend to do things in a monochromatic way. So everythings the same colour. So youll walk into a bathroom and its this pristine, beautiful white bathroom with white floor, white walls, and a white toilet. Now, when a person with dementia walks in there, they cant distinguish where the toilet is. And then, you know, one of the predicators for people going into aged care is often continence issues. And a simple thing like putting a different coloured toilet seat on the toilet can make the world of difference so that the person when they walk in, the toilet is really obvious. Or painting a different colour wall behind the toilet to really have the toilet is a feature, they can actually see it. SIMON LAUDER: How new is this idea of a dementia friendly building? MAREE MCCABE: In Australia I know that some places have done it quite well. But in terms of an organisation where people can come and see I think that this may be amongst the first. So were thrilled to be able to provide leadership in this area. SIMON LAUDER: How important is this going to become as Australias population ages? MAREE MCCABE: Look this is, it is so significant. Right now in Victoria alone weve got 74,600 people living with dementia. Australia-wide its 321,000 people living with dementia. By 2050 were looking at around a million. There wont be anybody in Australia thats not touched by this. And as a community we have a responsibility to ensure that we are socially inclusive, that people are taken care of, and that our society really supports all people. We do a great job in the area of physical disability. But we are nowhere near where we need to be to support people with cognitive disabilities. SIMON LAUDER: Can you give me a quick tour? MAREE MCCABE: Absolutely, Id love to. So if you can see that the carpet here is a very distinct colour from the walls. So the carpet is a grey, weve got the walls that are white. And then around the areas where there are bookshelves they are also defined in a different… SIMON LAUDER: What about the lighting, are there any tricks with that? MAREE MCCABE: Yeah, very good. Lighting is really important. Where it casts shadows can cause an illusion for the person living with dementia. So that can be a frightening experience. SIMON LAUDER: In many ways its pretty simple stuff. MAREE MCCABE: It is, its really simple. So if anybody walked in here theyd think, look, its just a really nice office, its a really nice building design. But when you start to distinguish the features that make a difference for people living with dementia, it really becomes alive. SIMON LAUDER: Do you think that other Australian buildings will have to take this into account in the future? MAREE MCCABE: Look, we are encouraging everybody to be inspired by this. Because people with dementia go everywhere, and weve got the retail sector, theres the banking sector, theres the emergency sector. Everybody needs to be across this. This really is a social issue and its something that we are going to have to be dealing with. And we need to prepare for it now. ELEANOR HALL: Thats the CEO of Alzheimers Australia Victoria, Maree McCabe, taking our reporter Simon Lauder on that tour. abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3874983.htm
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 04:30:32 +0000
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