A person-centered design can support accessibility and equality in residential care facilities

• It is well known that the world foresees an ageing population for whom the physical environment plays a central role in everyday life and wellbeing. Creating a health care environment that ensures accessibility and equality, shows respect and dignity will therefore be a great challenge. With increasing levels of frailty many older persons will be more or less depending on the care environment. A modern person-centered building design considers both individual and specific needs related to old age, in order to support quality of life and care. However, many of the existing buildings do not meet modern standards and there is a need for methods to evaluate the quality of the building design. According to a recently performed review there are few validated tools measuring the physical environment, especially in terms of a person-centered approach. This study presents a translated and validated tool for evaluating design quality in nursing home facilities. The tool is based on the idea that there is a relationship between high quality caring environments and quality of life of older persons. It makes a person-centered evaluation of the building, covering aspects such as privacy, personalization, safety, choice and control. These are essential factors to assure older persons a dignified ageing as equal members of the society.

Keyword

design facilities; person centered residential

Hälsa och välfärd

Health and Welfare

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)