Enabling environments
What is an enabling environment and why are they important for people with dementia?
An enabling environment is one which supports an individual to enjoy the best possible quality of life. This depends on many things, but improvements in an environment will make a person feel more at home and less anxious. People with dementia can experience challenges created by poorly designed environments. Dementia causes changes in the brain which mean people can perceive the world differently. This can cause challenges with sensory modalities such as sight, smell and sound. There are many simple changes which can be made to help a person living with dementia maintain their independence. These can often be ‘quick wins’ like adding good colour contrast to help people see and differentiate different spaces.
How can we help?
At the Association for Dementia Studies we have a wealth of expertise in helping you to create the best possible environment for people living with dementia, whether that’s at home, in a care setting, in extra care housing or in hospital. We can provide advice, consultancy, training and bespoke guidelines for your organisation. Organisations we have worked with include:
What consultancy, tools and resources can we offer?
- Education: You may want to undertake training for yourself or your team. We offer a Level 7 module on ‘Enabling Environments for people living with dementia’ as part of our Postgraduate Certificate in Person-Centred Dementia Studies. We also offer bespoke training and events focused on the principles of creating enabling environments which can be delivered face-to-face or online to help meet your team’s needs.
- Consultancy: We can work with you to assess your environment and design and implement a plan of action based on the findings. We can also develop design guidelines specific to your organisation or setting.
- Tools and resources: Our suite of environmental assessment tools now comprises six versions for different settings, and they are all available to download for free. You can find out more about how to use the tools in this blog post. We have also developed a booklet to make your garden dementia friendly. If you would like help using the assessment tools or wish to discuss the development of a bespoke environmental assessment tool, please contact us to find out more about the services we can offer.
- Research: Several research projects have included enabling environments work, such as Green Dementia Care and Walking with Purpose.
Please see the sections below for further information, or get in touch if you have any queries or would like to explore how we can work with you dementia@worc.ac.uk
The Enabling Environments Programme
Through its work with over 250 care organisations, The King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) Programme created a solid body of evidence to support the design of environments which promote well-being. The dementia-friendly design component of the programme transferred to the Association for Dementia Studies (ADS), and integrating this knowledge into our education, research and knowledge transfer activities enables ADS to help people with dementia to live well and to be well supported.
Building on this award-winning and cutting edge work, ADS offers a range of education programmes and workshops as well as bespoke consultancy for organisations and individuals who wish to create enabling and supportive environments for people living with dementia. We also offer free access to dementia-friendly environmental assessment tools for wards, hospitals, care homes, health centres, housing and gardens.
Our approach involves key principles of co-design and co-production, with the needs of people affected by dementia paramount in all our work. Evidence suggests that this not only results in better design, encouraging staff to ‘own’ and be proud of the physical environment in which they work, but also delivers innovative, sustainable, fit-for-purpose, cost-effective design.
Designing for Everyone: An environmental assessment toolkit for primary care premises
The Designing for Everyone environmental assessment toolkit has been developed to help GP practices, where the majority of NHS patient contacts take place, improve their buildings and the physical environment for people with learning disabilities, autism and cognitive impairment. It’s believed to be the first integrated resource of its kind to focus specifically on design principles to support people living with dementia, neurodiversity and conditions like anxiety.
ADS was commissioned to develop the toolkit by primary care building specialists Assura plc. It draws on research into best practice design for people living with dementia, neurodiversity and conditions like anxiety and earlier studies with Assura by the national charities Dimensions and the Patients Association. It will form part of Dimensions’ suite of training resources for general practice in its #MyGPAndMe campaign.
The suite of tools, which includes easy read versions, is available free to download via the Dimensions website.
What is available more widely?
The following documents provide further information about enabling environments for people living with dementia: