Creating a Dementia-Friendly
Memory Care Facility (Continued)
• Decrease visibility of doors that residents should not
use, such as utility rooms or staff spaces. If possible,
have exit doors not intended for resident use situated
parallel to the hallway so they are less visible, rather
than at the end of the hallway.
Provide appropriate physical support
• Install handrails (or a ledge to lean on) in the hallways
and grab-bars in the bathrooms.
• Minimize obstacles in hallways.
• Make sure floors are not slippery.
• Provide gradual transitions when changing flooring
materials (hard surface to carpeting) to minimize falls,
and provide handrails or other support in these areas.
• Minimize sharp color contrasts in flooring, and avoid
borders and strong, busy patterns, which can be visually
challenging to someone with dementia.
• Install motion detectors in rooms of residents prone
to falls.
Adjust the amount of stimulation
People with dementia have a decreased ability to deal with
multiple and competing stimuli and may be overwhelmed
when there is too much activity. Rather than simply
reducing all forms of stimulation, focus on minimizing those
sources of stimulation that have a negative impact on
residents. Care settings for people with dementia should
provide positive, therapeutic stimuli.
Acoustic stimulation
• Eliminate overhead public address systems.
• Avoid playing music throughout the facility.
• Minimize noise from necessary institutional support
systems, such as ice makers, carts and pill-crushers.
• Consider policies regarding caregiving staff talking loudly
to each other.
• Regulate the amount of noise generated by group
activities; activity rooms should have doors that can be
closed or left open.
(Continued)
29
Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Spring 2017