Purpose

The independence and well-being of people with dementia can be significantly influenced by the design of the physical environments around them. Several assessment tools exist to evaluate the dementia design quality of existing residential aged care facilities but, to date, none have been formally identified as suitable for use during the design process. This paper aims to examine the feasibility of re-purposing existing post-occupancy tools for use during the design process, while mapping the influence of design stages on resulting dementia design quality.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature searches identified audit tools for residential aged care settings. After reliability screening, three tools were analysed in-depth, mapping their suitability for use during the design process.

Findings

The study confirmed that existing tools can be re-purposed for design stage use and identified that early design stages have a larger influence on overall dementia design quality than previously thought.

Research limitations/implications

Non-English language publications were not reviewed. Searches may not have identified other existing audit tools for residential care environments.

Practical implications

The ability to assess proposals at key stages of design may help improve the dementia design quality of future residential aged care environments – potentially enhancing the lives of ever-larger numbers of people with dementia.

Originality/value

According to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known paper to consider formal design-stage evaluation of dementia design quality and the first to identify the relative influence of key stages of design on the resulting dementia design quality.

中文翻译：

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为住宅痴呆症护理环境设计阶段评估工具

目的

痴呆症患者的独立性和幸福感会受到他们周围物理环境设计的显着影响。存在多种评估工具来评估现有住宅老年护理设施的痴呆症设计质量，但迄今为止，没有一种工具被正式确定为适合在设计过程中使用。本文旨在研究在设计过程中重新利用现有的入住后工具的可行性，同时绘制设计阶段对最终痴呆设计质量的影响。

设计/方法/方法

文献搜索确定了住宅老年护理机构的审计工具。经过可靠性筛选后，对三种工具进行了深入分析，确定了它们在设计过程中的适用性。

发现

该研究证实，现有工具可以重新用于设计阶段的使用，并确定早期设计阶段对整体痴呆症设计质量的影响比以前认为的要大。

研究限制/影响

非英语出版物未经审查。搜索可能没有确定其他现有的住宅护理环境审计工具。

实际影响

在设计的关键阶段评估提案的能力可能有助于提高未来住宅老年护理环境的痴呆症设计质量——有可能改善越来越多的痴呆症患者的生活。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是第一篇考虑正式设计阶段评估痴呆症设计质量的已知论文，也是第一篇确定关键设计阶段对最终痴呆症设计质量的相对影响的论文。