Enhancing Long-Term Care Facilities with Calm Design
In long-term care facilities, creating a peaceful environment holds great importance. It's not just about looks; it highly impacts everyone. Designs play a significant role in impacting the peacefulness and calmness of a facility, especially in long-term care settings. Thoughtfully planned and executed designs can create an environment that promotes relaxation, comfort, and a sense of well-being for residents, staff, and visitors involved. Residents, staff, and visitors all benefit from a calming atmosphere. Let's discover how the design of the environment positively affects long-term care facilities, and what designs you can choose to create that peaceful atmosphere.
How The Facility Design Affects the Residents In a Care Facility
Everything from the color of the room, decorations, lighting, furniture choice, sound control, and view outside the facility impacts the residents in many ways. A bad combination of any of the elements can sometimes lead to a place that doesn’t feel as peaceful and calm as it should be. For example, you could have proper lighting and decorations but if the color of the room doesn’t match the mood, it can set residents off.
Here are ways that the design of a setting can affect residents:
Enhanced Comfort: Thoughtfully designed spaces with comfortable furniture, cozy seating areas, and soft furnishings contribute to the overall comfort of residents. Comfortable environments can promote relaxation and reduce feelings of anxiety or restlessness.
Sense of Security: A well-designed facility with clear wayfinding and easily navigable spaces can provide residents with a sense of security and familiarity. This reduces confusion and anxiety, especially for residents with cognitive impairments.
Reduces Behavioral Issues: A calming and well-designed environment can help reduce agitation and behavioral issues in residents with dementia or cognitive impairments. Tranquil surroundings can contribute to a calmer and more peaceful atmosphere.
Supports Restful Sleep: Proper lighting, sound control, and comfortable bedding contribute to better sleep quality for residents. Improved sleep can positively impact mood, cognition, and overall health.
Enhances Emotional Well-being: Aesthetically pleasing and comforting designs can evoke positive emotions and feelings of contentment in residents. A sense of emotional well-being can lead to increased overall satisfaction and happiness.
Ways to Make the Designs of Care Facilities Peaceful and Calming
Designing the rooms and hallways of care facilities is no rocket science. There are plenty of elements that you can include and play with in order to create a more cozy and comfortable place. Just remember to not put too much of anything and you can always ask for professional advice from interior designers or architects.
Incorporate Nature Elements
We all know that well-placed indoor plants, gardens, water features, aquariums, and atriums make the environment way better. The importance of using nature elements in design, especially in healthcare settings like care facilities, lies in the numerous benefits it offers to residents, staff, and visitors. Incorporating nature-inspired elements can significantly enhance the overall environment and well-being of individuals.
You can incorporate nature elements by:
Place potted plants or hanging greenery throughout common areas, hallways, and resident rooms. There are tons of benefits of indoor plants and some include an improvement in air quality and the soothing of ambiance.
Design outdoor spaces with accessible healing gardens where residents can enjoy fresh air, sunlight, and the beauty of nature. Include comfortable seating areas like benches, walking paths, and elements like fragrant flowers and wind chimes. There are numerous studies that showed how gardens can help in healing because of their benefits.
Incorporate water features like fountains or small ponds in outdoor areas or communal spaces.
Arrange seating areas or resident rooms to offer views of outdoor green spaces, gardens, or nearby natural landscapes.
Install bird feeders or bird baths near windows to attract birds. Although you need to properly install bird feeders in order to avoid pest infestations.
Mindful Colors and Lighting Choices
There are plenty of calming colors that you can choose from, most of them are ones you see in nature such as blue and green. Colors can influence emotions. Opting for warm and cheerful colors like yellows and pastel tones can uplift residents' moods. Red is known to be the most stressful color because it evokes negative emotions such as anger, and danger. But it is also known for love and passion, it is important to be careful when using strong and bold colors when designing rooms.
Lighting is one of the most important design elements. Just like colors, lighting can also affect the resident’s overall mood. Maximizing natural light in resident rooms can also regulate circadian rhythms, and positively affect sleep patterns. Adequate lighting ensures that residents can move around safely within their rooms, reducing the risk of accidents and falls, especially during nighttime visits to the bathroom.
You can incorporate colors and lighting by:
Choosing calming and relaxing colors
Putting as much natural light inside the room as possible
Putting artificial lights in the right places to help residents see properly, especially at night
Comfortable and Functional Furniture
Nobody wants to sit on an uncomfortable and hard bed or sofa. Comfortable furniture provides residents with a sense of ease and relaxation. It allows them to rest, sit, and move comfortably.
You can incorporate comfortable furniture by:
Choosing a bed and sofas with the right cushion and support
Include functional furniture such as adjustable beds and chairs to support older adults with mobility issues.
Sturdy and well-balanced furniture can help prevent falls and accidents among residents
Common Areas
Common areas provide residents with opportunities to socialize, engage in conversations, and form meaningful connections with fellow residents and staff. Communal spaces often host various activities, games, and group events. Engaging in these activities provides mental stimulation, helping to keep residents' minds active, alert, and emotionally fulfilled. Common areas are a must in every long-term care facility
Art and Music For Relaxation
Music and art have proven therapeutic benefits. Music therapy can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression while engaging in art activities can enhance cognitive function, memory, and emotional expression.
How to Incorporate Music and Art in Facilities
Put up or display art pieces that are peaceful such as pictures of food, animals, scenery, or nature.
Conduct music and art therapy sessions for residents to participate in
Have a designated area with musical instruments, such as keyboards, guitars, or percussion instruments, where residents can freely play and experiment with music.
Set up art supply stations in common areas, enabling residents to access art materials easily.
Arrange for live musical performances within the facility.
Arrange themed art exhibitions within the facility.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the design of long-term care facilities holds a profound impact on the well-being and quality of life of residents. By incorporating nature elements, such as indoor plants, natural lighting, and outdoor healing gardens, we create an environment that promotes tranquility, healing, and a connection to the outdoors. Proper color choices, combined with thoughtful lighting, further enhance the atmosphere, positively influencing residents' emotions and overall sense of comfort. These spaces become more than just care facilities; they become homes that offer solace, connection, and support. So it is important to make the residents at home as much as possible.
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