THE 3 ESSENTIAL OBJECTIVES IN CARING FOR RESIDENTS WITH DEMENTIA

Caregivers and family members face unique challenges when caring for dementia residents. The affected persons themselves are completely dependent on physical and emotional care from third parties. Three main objectives for special care can be used to master everyday life.

1. Improve orientation

Residents with dementia often lose their short-term but not their long-term memory. Temporal and spatial orientation points are therefore necessary. The integration of striking colors, shapes and objects into the individual room concept helps dementia patients with spatial perception. To make the resident environment safer, it makes sense to design surface and color schemes specifically. Color contrasts, handles, and handrails help guide or support residents in their environment. The right choice of colors can compensate for the physiological and cognitive limitations of people with dementia. Thus, the well-being can be increased, and still existing resources can be effectively promoted. Due to the limited color perception of people with dementia, specific colors can often no longer be perceived. In this case, specific harmonizing colors can be chosen, e.g. to make selected areas disappear visually. On the other hand, stronger contrasting colors can be used to emphasize certain things as important. The special lighting of the rooms, adapted to the human biorhythm, gives the residents a feeling of daylight. This is achieved by using warm or cool light colors adapted to the time of day.

2. Increase independence

Independent residents relieve the nursing staff. The spatial design through an individual room concept makes it possible for dementia patients to handle routine activities on their own. A key factor is the visibility of storage spaces and shelves that residents can use for their personal belongings and reach easily and intuitively. Sensory aids such as junk boxes and experience walls support basal stimulation. The ability to act independently is thus maintained and increased.

3. Reduction of the risk of falling

Especially for people in need of care, there is a significantly increased risk of falling, and this risk is even higher for dementia patients. Studies by the University of Rotterdam showed that there was an average of three falls per year and patient in the facility studied. The consequences are serious for the residents; while every tenth to fifth fall resulted in an injury for residents without such a condition, it was every third fall for dementia patients. Digital care assistants, such as the SafeSense® 3, can make an important contribution to fall prevention.