At Home with Dementia
At Home with Dementia is a free Dementia Australia service that helps you make your home more dementia-friendly.
What is a dementia-friendly home?
A dementia-friendly home is a safe home, but it can be much more than that, too. A truly dementia-friendly home should also support the independence, comfort, functioning and wellbeing of everyone who lives there.
There are a lot of ways to make your home more dementia-friendly, but it can be hard to do it all on your own. That’s why At Home with Dementia is here to help.
How does At Home with Dementia work?
After you request the service, one of our highly experienced and qualified Dementia Australia Occupational Therapists will contact you by phone, email or video call. They will introduce themselves and the program, then guide you to:
- assess your home to see what’s working well and where there are challenges
- work out your support needs and goals
- decide on helpful changes and improvements around the house
- make a personalised support plan to make those changes
- get referrals and recommendations to other useful services.
Your Dementia Australia Occupational Therapist will follow up with you eight to twelve weeks later to see how you’re going and help with any problems you’re having in making the improvements in your plan.
Note: At Home with Dementia doesn’t provide in-home assessments for major home modifications, or NDIS or My Aged Care occupational therapy-related assessments.
Who can use At Home with Dementia?
If you or someone else living in your home has dementia, or changes in thinking and memory, At Home with Dementia is for you.
At Home with Dementia is currently available across Australia.
To get started, contact the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 and ask for At Home with Dementia.
Transcript
[Beginning of recorded material]
[Title card: Dementia Australia]
[Title card: How occupational therapy can assist you]
Christina: Hello, and thank you for joining this webinar on occupational therapy and dementia. Before we begin today, and in keeping with Occupational Therapy Australia's commitment to reconciliation and respect, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to the land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with us today.
Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Christina Wyatt, and I'm an occupational therapist and a professional practise advisor for Occupational Therapy Australia. Occupational Therapy Australia are the national peak professional association for occupational therapists and students in Australia. We are a member based not-for-profit organisation, and we provide support and services to our members, enabling them to work across a diverse range of practise areas, and with a diverse range of people.
Today's webinar is all about how occupational therapy can support someone living with dementia. During this session, I plan to take you through some points about what we know of dementia, introduce the role of occupational therapy to you, discuss the many ways in which occupational therapists work with people living with dementia, and provide some advice about services and resources that can support someone with a dementia diagnosis to receive the right services, including occupational therapy.
So what is dementia? Dementia itself is not a single specific condition. Rather, it's an umbrella term for a large number of conditions that gradually impair brain function. Impairments or changes caused by dementia can include cognition, language, memory, perception, personality, behaviour, and mobility, and other physical impairments. Dementia is now the third leading cause of disease burden in Australia. Up to 472,000 Australians are living with dementia, and more than half of the people in residential aged care have a dementia diagnosis.
There are several risk factors for dementia. Age, for example, is a well-known risk factor for dementia, with the risk doubling every five to six years for people over 65. Having said that, ageing is not a determinant of developing dementia, and in some circumstances, dementia can develop in people under 65, known as younger onset dementia. Age is classified as a non-modifiable risk factor, but there are many other risk factors for dementia that can be minimised known as modifiable risk factors. A recent report presented by The Lancet Commissions identified 12 modifiable risk factors for dementia, with these risk factors accounting for around 40% of worldwide preventable dementia. Key modifiable risk factors include hypertension or high blood pressure, hearing impairment, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, social isolation, excessive alcohol consumption, traumatic brain injury, and air pollution.
The main types of dementia include: Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative brain disease caused by nerve cell death resulting in shrinkage of the brain; vascular dementia, a disease that is mainly caused by issues with blood flow to the brain through events such as stroke or bleeding into or around the brain tissue; dementia with Lewy bodies, a disease caused by degeneration and death of nerve cells in the brain due to the presence of abnormal spherical structures that develop inside the nerve cells called Lewy bodies; and frontotemporal dementia, a disease that is caused by progressive damage to the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain.
Dementia can also be associated with other conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Down Syndrome. As mentioned earlier, prolonged substance abuse and severe brain injuries are risk factors for dementia and can lead to specific types of dementia. Having multiple types of dementia at once is also common, and is referred to as mixed dementia. Dementia can present differently from person to person, and for some individuals, from day-to-day. Dementia progression and symptoms can vary due to personal characteristics like age and health conditions, type and severity of dementia, with some dementias presenting with particular symptoms, age at diagnosis, and personal circumstances like care and living arrangements or access to health services.
Despite the variations in symptom, presentation, and progression, all cases of dementia will eventually result in cognitive and physical decline. Dementia-related symptoms are often grouped into three stages: mild, moderate, and advanced dementia. Occupational therapists work with people across all stages of dementia to help mitigate the impact symptoms have on daily life. Early intervention is key to maintaining function and independence for as long as possible.
The first stage of dementia is mild dementia. It is defined by subtle changes to cognition or behaviour, but because many people still retain independence in basic activities of daily living, these changes may not be recognised as dementia and are instead attributed to old age. As mentioned earlier, the onset of symptoms may differ or be gradual. These symptoms can include forgetfulness and confusion, irritability and appearing more apathetic, poor judgement and decision making, disinterest in activities, vision or speech problems, behavioural changes, and a decline in higher order or more complex activities of living like finances, planning, and organising self and others.
The next stage is moderate dementia. Symptoms in this stage are more distinct, an impact on key activities of daily living such as driving and preparing meals. In addition to these symptoms and the ones outlined earlier, moderate dementia symptoms may include increased fear and paranoia, increased forgetfulness and confusion, inappropriate or uncharacteristic behaviours, and loss of function.
Advanced dementia is the final stage of dementia in which health and functional ability decline such that the person becomes more dependent on others for their activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and toileting. The person may experience severe memory loss, problems with communication, difficulty swallowing, incontinence, decreased mobility, or complete immobility in the final months or weeks of life. Most people in advanced stages of dementia require extensive care, often from permanent residential care settings.
So, who are occupational therapists and how can they help someone live with dementia? Occupational therapists work to maximise a person's active enjoyment in life by identifying barriers to participation, and by building strategies to minimise any risks or impediments to participation. To achieve this, we apply a person-centred and holistic approach to our practise. What does those words mean? Well, it means we consider all the aspects that make up a person, and all the life roles they find meaningful. We then work on strategies to achieve optimal health and well-being through participation in these meaningful occupations of life.
When occupational therapists use the term occupation, we aren't talking about paid work. The term occupation is used to describe all the everyday things we do in our life, all the things we do to be who we are, all the things we do to create a meaningful life, and all the things we do so we can engage with the wider society and culture. These meaningful activities might include the routine daily tasks we do to take care of oneself and others, work or volunteering activities, activities where we engage with others socially, or activities that allow us to participate in hobbies or leisure pursuits.
For people living with dementia, an occupational therapist can support you in maintaining your independence and quality of life for as long as possible. Occupational therapists apply a strength-based approach when working with people with a focus on fostering personal goals, abilities, and motivations. We break down all the meaningful tasks or occupations to fully appreciate what the task involves, and what it requires of someone. We also consider the environment, and how it may support or hinder a person's ability to perform their meaningful occupations. These environments may range from a person's home, through their work, social, or community settings.
How do we do this? Well, as mentioned earlier, occupational therapists take a holistic approach. We do this by fully exploring the person, their environment, and their support systems, and the activities or occupations that are important or meaningful to them. Through these key parameters, we can truly appreciate all the facets that make up an individual. There are many ways occupational therapists can support a person with dementia, and these will often interact and overlap.
I'll now take you through the key areas of a person's life that an occupational therapist might address when working with someone living with dementia. People with dementia might start to struggle to do their daily activities like personal care, meal preparation, or housework. In these circumstances, occupational therapists might adopt a variety of strategies to ensure ongoing safe participation in daily activities.
We might look to retrain a person on how to perform a certain activity to highlight their abilities and to mitigate any risks. We may train carers on how they can assist someone to safely undertake certain tasks. Small aids or equipment may be prescribed to facilitate participation like long handled showering aids, or dressing aids, or toileting aids. We may also modify the environment to make it easier or safer for someone with dementia to participate in these activities of daily living.
As function deteriorates, a person with dementia might need their environment altered to allow. them to safely navigate and use the space, or to support them to participate as safely and independently as possible in their meaningful activities. These changes, as mentioned earlier, are usually done in consideration of the way a person is performing the task, anticipated changes to function that may come with the dementia diagnosis, and carer support requirements. Changes can be small like increased lighting along passageways to facilitate night access to toilets, through to more complex changes like major modifications to spaces like bathrooms.
Changes to a person's memory, ability to make decisions, or coordinate themselves to perform regular daily activities is a common presentation for someone with dementia. People with dementia may also experience behaviour changes as a result of cognitive changes. Occupational therapists can work with the person, and their family or carers, to identify solutions to compensate for the cognitive changes being experienced, and provide strategies to utilise their strengths so they can continue to engage in their meaningful activities.
Strategies, such as calendars, diaries, and building daily routines, can often be very helpful for someone living in the early stages of dementia. More structured supports may be considered in the moderate stages, such as alarms or digitised diaries to remind people of their important daily activities. Signage or colour coding of the environment can also be used to help guide people with moderate dementia through their environment.
People living with dementia may experience physical decline and loss of functional mobility. Functional mobility relates to someone's ability to perform routine movements, such as transfers on or off furniture, or navigation of steps or stairs, and deficits in these areas can negatively impact someone's ability to participate in various meaningful activities.
These changes might be related to the type of dementia someone has been diagnosed with or related to other health conditions they have that are exacerbated by dementia. Much like the strategies covered in daily activities or environment, occupational therapists can assist with prescription of small aids or equipment, environment modifications, falls and balance prevention strategies, or exercise and activity redesign or retraining. Enabling a person to live with dementia to maintain relationships with family, friends, and colleagues, or connections to their community of interest is really important, so is creating opportunities to make new connections if former ones drop away. Occupational therapists often work in the context of meaningful activities to facilitate or enhance connection with others.
Occupational therapists will assist a person's ability to access their community whether that be by driving or by using public transport options, consider their cognitive or language impairments, and how this might impact on their ability to connect with others, and may consider new ways of staying connected like digital or virtual methods, particularly during times like these of pandemic and quarantine.
Recreational and leisure activities are an important part of many people's lives, and the ability to perform these activities impact on our quality of life and well-being. Occupational therapists will often work with people experiencing dementia, and their carers or families to ensure they can maintain their recreational and leisure pursuits. This might include strategies to support access to these activities with and without carer support, ways to continue to participate, including activity modification or aids and equipment, or ways to open up new opportunities for recreational leisure when dementia-related deficits may prevent someone from participating in long-held pursuits.
Occupational therapists can provide support to those caring for someone experiencing dementia. We have a role in supporting carer well-being and safety. Occupational therapists might provide stress management techniques, or mindfulness training to those carers who need the support, in addition to linking carers with professional services, such as specialist carer support agencies or counselling support. Occupational therapists can also ensure carer safety and well-being by ensuring the environment is set up to facilitate safe delivery of care, and through the training of safe manual handling techniques.
Occupational therapists often work as part of a multidisciplinary approach to dementia. Multidisciplinary teams that support people with dementia often involve other medical and allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, podiatrists, nurses, and psychologists. Strategies and interventions recommended by occupational therapists may be designed and delivered following collaboration and consultation with other allied health and medical professionals. Occupational therapists can help connect people with dementia to other health professionals if they haven't yet been, to ensure the holistic needs of the person are being best addressed.
There are a number of different ways people experiencing dementia can access occupational therapy services. The My Aged Care website provides a referral point for older people to access assessment and funding for the allied health services they need, including occupational therapy. The process involves firstly registering, then undertaking an assessment from which referrals for necessary services will be generated. This can include referrals to health professionals like occupational therapists, or to other services like home-based support or respite care.
Allied health services provided in the community are funded in a variety of ways: through federal aged care funding, eligible to those registered with My Aged Care and assessed as needing those services; through a GP chronic disease management plan or mental health plan, and they offer Medicare-subsidised allied health services for physical or mental health needs; and through state government funded programs by community health services. A discussion with your GP will help you determine which services you're eligible for, and we’ll assist you with the necessary steps and referrals to access these services.
Department of Veteran Affairs cardholders may be eligible for occupational therapy services. A referral from your GP, a medical specialist, or your hospital treating doctor is required. A call to the Department of Veteran Affairs is encouraged to confirm that your card entitles you to occupational therapy services. Those with private health insurance may have coverage that funds occupational therapy or facilitates access to health and wellbeing programs that include occupational therapy. Other people may opt to arrange private occupational therapy services with local providers. Occupational therapists are also involved in providing specialist services in programs like movement disorder clinics, behaviour support services, or pain management programs. A GP or medical specialist would be best placed to identify and refer to these specialist services.
It is worth noting that there are a number of services available outside of those described earlier that are specifically for people living with dementia. These services often work alongside, collaborate with, and compliment services provided by an occupational therapist. These include the National Dementia Support Program, a government initiative predominantly delivered by Dementia Australia that offers information, education programs, services and resources aimed at improving awareness and understanding about dementia, so that people living with dementia and their families can make informed decisions about the support services they access.
Dementia Australia is the national peak body for people of all ages living with all forms of dementia and their family and carers, and they offer a number of programs and services. Some worth noting include the National Dementia Australia Helpline, a free service for anyone affected by dementia to seek support and advice, and the Dementia-Friendly Communities program, providing resources, services, and strategies for individuals, communities, and groups to better support people living with dementia in the community.
Dementia Support Australia is a national service held by HammondCare, and they offer expertise in dementia care across three key programs. The Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service provides client-focused information, assessment, and advice to both staff and carers supporting people with dementia across community, acute, and residential care settings. The Severe Behaviour Response Team is a 24/7 mobile workforce aimed at providing assessment and tailored recommendations to support people experiencing severe behaviours or psychological symptoms of dementia living in eligible residential care settings. The Needs Based Assessment program identifies those who are eligible to receive the specialist dementia care program. This program offers individualised care to those experiencing severe behavioural psychological symptoms of dementia, who cannot be cared for in a mainstream residential care facility. The program aims to reduce or stabilise the behavioural or psychological symptoms, so that people can move back to less intensive care environments.
Some other services that aren't dementia specific but are worth noting include the "Find an OT" service offered by Occupational Therapy Australia. This service helps people locate a private occupational therapist with specific skills or clinical expertise in their area. As explained earlier, the Department of Veteran Affairs can be a source of funding for occupational therapy input to those who are eligible. The Australian Government Care Gateway is a service designed to support those acting in a carer role. They offer resources and links to services to provide support to carers Australia-wide. As mentioned earlier, the My Aged Care is the key gateway for older Australians to access aged care services and funding nationwide.
Occupational therapists work across and within many of the programs described, so it is important for people living with dementia to understand what they may be eligible for, and who can best support their needs. We welcome any questions that you might have of us as occupational therapists, and you may contact us at our Occupational Therapy Australia service. We look forward to hearing from you and wanting to best support you and your needs. We thank you for your time today, and we hope that you found this webinar useful in understanding how occupational therapy can support people living with dementia.
[Title card: Together we can reshape the impact of dementia]
[Title card: Dementia Australia. 1800 100 500. Dementia.org.au]
[END of recorded material]
Transcript
[Beginning of recorded material]
[Title card: Dementia Australia]
[Title card: At home with dementia – Creating a supportive and enabling environment]
Cathy: Hello, and welcome to the “At Home with Dementia: Creating a Supportive and Enabling Environment” webinar. I'm Cathy, and I'm a dementia support specialist here at Dementia Australia. I'd like to start the webinar with an acknowledgement of country. In the spirit of reconciliation, Dementia Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respect to the Elders, past, and present, and extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. I would particularly like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional custodians of the ACT and surrounding land from which I'm presenting.
So today, I'm going to explore with you how a well-thought-out home environment can help you to live well by supporting independence, engagement, safety, and comfort. The webinar is designed for people living with dementia, and carers, who live in the community. And welcome to those of you who are joining and watching. The aim of this session is to help you to understand what makes a supportive home environment, and to provide some ideas and guidance that you can use to think about, and apply in your own home.
Through watching the webinar, I hope that you develop your understanding of how changes due to dementia can affect the way the home environment is experienced, that you gain awareness and understanding of the environmental design principles. These are evidence-based principles which you can use to help you think about your home, the things that might be difficult, and changes that might be helpful. And I will also provide you with some examples, so that you understand the design principles and how they can be used at home.
Before we launch into the principles and examples, I'd like to take a step back and touch on why this is such an important topic. It's important because in Australia, regular homes in the community are where most people diagnosed with dementia live. In fact, two-thirds of people with dementia live in the community, and the very strong message that we get from our clients is that they want to continue to live at home for as long as possible. And very often, this is for life. Clients identify their homes as very important to them, supporting a sense of identity and belonging, and allowing them to be independent, comfortable, and engaged. Supporting people to continue to live well at home, even with changing cognition and needs, enhances wellbeing and supports choice. And I think we can all agree that that's really important.
The other thing I want to mention briefly is that it's important to note that people living with dementia have an increased risk of falls and accidents at home, either due to dementia, or sometimes due to coexisting conditions. In some cases, structural modifications to the home or more complex equipment are needed to address safety concerns. These might include things such as rails, ramps, and mobility aids. Major and specialised environmental modification is not covered in this webinar. If you have concerns around the physical safety of your home, it's important to get professional advice. And there are a number of programs that support the assessment of home safety, including through My Aged Care and the NDIS. These programs are often heavily subsidised or free, so I would encourage you to follow up through the appropriate system if this is applicable to you.
To understand why the environment is important for you to think about, it's important to understand the changes that are commonly experienced by people living with dementia. These changes will vary depending on the type of dementia. However, there are some that are fairly commonly experienced, and these include changes to both a person's abilities and sensory changes. In terms of abilities, cognitive changes impact how people process, understand, and use information. Changes to things such as memory, planning, initiation, and sequencing of tasks are common, and these make it difficult to do the things that would previously have been easily managed. For example, most people take day-to-day tasks like making a cup of tea or putting on a load of washing for granted, but these tasks involve a lot of steps, and can become challenging. Think about a task around the house that you manage easily, and think about what's involved. You might be surprised at how complex it is when you break it down. Our brains work hard all the time and we don't even realise it. Changes in ability can also include physical changes. For example, to mobility, and this can be either directly due to dementia or due to other factors. This is particularly the case for older people who may be living with coexisting age-related conditions. Both cognitive and physical changes impact your ability to use and make sense of the environment. Simple adaptations to the home, which we'll talk about in a little bit, can make a big difference in supporting independence, safety, and wellbeing. And just to illustrate how many steps simple tasks can involve, here are the steps involved in making a cup of tea. These steps need to be done in order and rely heavily on remembering where things are, being able to put the steps together, and remembering where you're up to in the process. It often surprises people how complex tasks are when they break them down into all the small steps involved. And you can see how much even simple tasks rely on cognitive ability.
As well as changes in cognitive and physical abilities, changes in the way information from our sensors is perceived and interpreted can change. There are two aspects to this. A person's sensors might have less security due to age related factors. In other words, they may not work as well as they used to. For example, hearing or vision may be impaired, making it difficult to get useful information and cues from the environment. The other aspect of sensory change that is important to think about is how dementia impacts on our ability to interpret information from the environment. Information from our sensors is processed in our brain. Our brain makes sense of what we see, hear, feel, touch, and taste, and it understands where we are in our environment. Our brain uses this information to direct how we move around and use our environment.
For people living with dementia, the way sensory information is processed and interpreted changes, and this impacts on the way the environment is experienced. For example, the depth of a step might be misjudged. Pattern surfaces may appear to be moving. It may feel cold even on a warm day, or conversation may be difficult to filter out of background noise. Changes to sensory perception can make a regular home environment confusing and uncomfortable, and can create safety issues. Here are some examples of that; wavy lines or similar patterns, as seen in the first image, can appear to be moving. Dark patches on the floor, as seen in the second image, can look like holes. This can be quite disconcerting and post potential safety risks.
All of these changes impact the way that the environment is experienced, and your ability to do the things that you want and need to do. It can make the experience of home frustrating and uncomfortable. It can also sometimes be difficult to communicate this experience, adding to frustration. Considering this in the context of your home environment is especially important, because it's where we spend most of our time and do lots of things. The home environment can present challenges, but it can also present opportunities, because we know what is supportive, and we have the ability to make small changes that can make a big difference.
So, in thinking about common changes to abilities and sensory information that you might experience, in using research around what causes difficulty in the environment and what's helpful, there are some general principles that have been developed to guide people to create environments that are supportive and to maximise participation in independence. These principles were specifically developed for larger residential care settings, so not all of the most relevant home environments. However, several are very relevant and useful to help you think about your environment, how supportive it is, and how it could be enhanced. These principles have been used for very many years and they're very well recognised within home environments.
It's important in applying the principles to think about the environment generally. For example, good lighting and safe flooring are important to everybody. It's also important to think specifically about areas or tasks that might be difficult for you, and changes that might help. Everyone has different interests and needs, and it's important to think about your situation and what you want to achieve. Here are the principles that are most relevant to residential homes. If you're interested in exploring the principles further, there's more information available through the links on the launch page for this webinar. The first principle is to unobtrusively reduce risk. For example, simple things like organising cords so they are not a trip hazard, and storing medicines appropriately. The principal talks about unobtrusively reducing risk. This is important, because rather than creating obvious barriers, it aims to maintain a very normal, familiar environment. For example, I had a client who was a real handyman and used to chainsaw all his life. However, he was no longer able to safely use the chainsaw. His family might have locked the shed so that he couldn't access it, but this would've created a frustrating barrier, and stopped him from accessing other tools that he could still use safely. Instead, they lent the chainsaw to his son on a permanent basis, removing the safety risk, but supporting access to the shed.
The second principle is to reduce unhelpful stimulation. We talked earlier about sensory changes and changes in abilities. It can be really difficult for a person with dementia to pick out the useful cues and items in the environment if there's too much information to take in and sort out. Some good examples of this principle are reducing clutter, limiting background noise when engaging in conversation, and avoiding patterns on carpets and crockery.
The third principle to think about is optimising helpful stimulation. Providing helpful information and cues in the environment is a really powerful tool to support engagement and independence. Some examples of this principle are grouping items that are used together and storing them in view where they are to be used, using colour and contrast to contrast useful environments from the background, and to help with depth perception, increasing light, using aids for orientation, such as a large face day/night time clock, and a whiteboard with activities listed, and dinner smells at dinnertime.
The fourth principle is supporting movement and engagement. It's important to think about whether spaces in your home are safe and accessible. This includes placing furniture and other items to allow good circulation space and creating lines of sight so that one area can be seen from another. For example, the bathroom from the bed. Supporting movement and engagement is also about supporting engagement with activities and tasks. And we'll have a look at this through some of the examples in the next section of the webinar.
The fifth principle that we're going to consider today is creating a familiar space, and I would add a familiar and comfortable space. It's important to think what makes a space comfortable to you. Familiar objects and smells, furniture, photos, temperature and music might all be a part of this. The principle of creating a familiar space can be particularly useful for people when they're moving house or downsizing, to create familiarity and comfort. It's important to have engaging spaces and places to engage with others in the home, but also, to provide the opportunity for quiet time alone. It can help to create quiet spaces that are still within the line of sight to other areas of the home. So, that's a quick overview of the principles that can guide you to think about the home, and what might be helpful and unhelpful for you. It's important to make the point that using the principles of dementia-friendly design doesn't mean creating a boring cookie cutter a home. One client commented to me that she couldn't live without colour, and this is absolutely key that the things that make a house a home, to you, are central to any changes that you might consider making. Changes have to fit with your lifestyle and preferences. In terms of colour, for example, use thoughtfully, this can be very helpful. As an example of this, here's the very unique purple toilet seat at our north right office. The contrast to the toilet itself is helpful with depth perception. I'm not suggesting that you rush out and change all your bathroom fittings to purple, but hopefully, this gives you an idea that colour can be helpful. It's just important to think about how it's used.
I'd now like to take you through some examples of where the design principles are put into practice, to demonstrate their use. As we go through, think about your home environment, and how some of these ideas might be relevant for you. The examples that I'm using involve really simple, inexpensive changes. Remember that these are just examples, and there's lots more that can be done depending on your needs and situation, including using equipment and aids, or making more significant changes.
The first example is a kitchen. This is a fairly typical kitchen. It's clean and functional, but perhaps you can see how it could be difficult to use? We've talked earlier about the idea that a previously taken for granted task like making a cup of tea can become difficult, and that the environment can contribute to this difficulty. In this example, you can see that the kitchen is a bit cluttered, and this isn’t uncommon. Lots of regularly used items are out and within easy reach, and there's some nice greenery to brighten up the space, but that setup isn't necessarily helpful for people trying to perform particular tasks.
By applying the principles, we can make the space more supportive and useful. So here's the same kitchen set up to facilitate ease of use and activity. In this case, making a cup of tea. You can see that the principles have been applied here. Risks have been reduced by putting away hand cream, medication, and detergent, which didn't need to be on the bench with food items. Other examples of risk reduction in a kitchen might be reducing water temperature, or putting timers or cutoff switches on stoves. Unhelpful stimulation has also been reduced. The bench was quite visually cluttered. Removing items that didn't need to be there makes useful items more visually accessible. You can see how this makes it a much easier environment to understand and use. Helpful stimulation has been increased. The blind in this kitchen was broken and stuck half open, and this was reducing the amount of light available. The blind's now been removed to increase lighting. Swapping light globes for higher wattage globes can also be helpful.
In the new setup, the items on the bench have been limited to those that are required, and they're now grouped by their function. In this case, to create a drink station. Contrast has been introduced through the mat under the tea making items. Labels have also been used on some of the cupboards. Labelling, either with pictures or words, can be really helpful. You don't have to label everything. A good way to use labels is to store high use items together and label that cupboard, rather than labelling multiple cupboards. There are usually limited number of items that are regularly used, so this is quite easy to achieve. And here's just a closeup of the tea station. Going back to when we looked at the steps involved in making a cup of tea, you can hopefully see how simplifying the environment, grouping items, using contrast, and labelling can make this task easier.
Moving on to a second example. This is a living space. I'd like you to squint and look at this image. The squint test helps to illustrate how a space may appear for somebody with changes in sensory perception. You'll probably notice that it's difficult to see that this is a chair, and to use the space. There are a number of unhelpful features here – clutter presents a potential trip hazard and detracts from the usefulness of the space. The lack of light makes it difficult to navigate and access, glare from behind reflecting off the blinds, and the pattern of the blinds are problematic. The pattern that the blinds create could potentially create an illusion of movement. And the chair carpet and background are all similar colours. There's a lack of definition and contrast to help with perception of position and depth. The result of this is that it's difficult to pick out the chair and to safely use it. It's also not a setup that looks comfortable or appealing.
So, here's the same space with a couple of simple changes. The good things about the space are that it's a comfortable outward facing space with a nice window view, and a sturdy chair that's easy to get in and out of. We've enhanced the usability of the space, and maximised those features with a few little changes. We've reduced unhelpful stimulation by moving clutter and distractions, which were also potentially causing trip hazards. We've opened the blinds to reduce glare, visual clutter, and potential visual distortion. We've increased helpful information and cues. The blinds are opened to provide better light. A light-coloured cushion and a throw rug have been added for contrast and to define the chair. A side table with some books of interest, it has been included to make the space more inviting and engaging. Try squinting and looking at the space again. You'll see that even with reduced visual information, it's an easy and inviting space to understand and use.
The final example I'd like to share with you is an outdoor space. This is the view from the back door of a house. You can see that, again, there's a lack of contrast and cues to indicate what the space could be used for. However, we know that spending time outside is beneficial and enjoyable, so it would be great if we could set it up to be more engaging. Here's the same space set up to invite somebody out and to invite use of the space. We've added some plants – sensory plants such as herbs can be particularly good for this purpose. We've also added some gardening tools, and defined the space by simply adding a cushion to the chair. Having spaces around the home that encourage activities of interest can be really helpful in providing a sense of purpose and achievement and enhancing wellbeing. So, those are just some really simple examples, but I hope you get a sense of how small changes in your home might be helpful to you. It's important to note that you need to continually think about and adapt your environment as your needs change. The beauty is that the dementia-friendly design principles apply regardless of the stage of dementia, or the outcome you want to achieve. You might just come up with a different approach or solution depending on your situation.
I hope you've enjoyed the “At Home with Dementia” webinar, and that you now have a better understanding of how changes due to dementia can impact the way you experience, and use your home environment. I hope that through the information I've provided, you understand the principles of good design that can help to make your home more supportive. If you're interested in exploring this topic further, there are links to some really great resources included on the webinar launch page.
Dementia Australia is also very excited to be able to offer a home consultation service, which provides you with access to an occupational therapist, to explore changes that you might make in your own home to best meet your needs. This program's available throughout Australia, so please let us know if you're interested. Thank you very much for your time today. If you would like to talk further about this topic, be referred to the home consultation service, or for further information, please contact the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500. Thank you very much.
[Title card: Together we can reshape the impact of dementia]
[Title card: Dementia Australia. 1800 100 500. Dementia.org.au]
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The National Dementia Helpline
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