![Sample our Built Environment journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5926/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Built-Environment.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Long-term care homes could be designed with input from the persons living in those facilities. The narratives and experiences of residents living with dementia often remains a missing element in the conception of space and place. With the loss of voice, long-term care residents experience a systematic reduction of personhood and identity, leaving a crisis of characterization for the voiceless. The exclusion of voice in design fails to grasp the cognitive and affective relationships that transform institutional space into living spaces that promote well-being. In this pilot study, we used a modified version of Hycner’s qualitative methods with a newly designed non-verbal pictogram scale to understand how residents with dementia perceive their personal space. Our results suggest that residents anthropomorphize natural surroundings, which become surrogates to dealing with loss, and their narratives are foundational and reciprocal to the preferential design of space and place and their feelings within that space.
Acknowledgements
With a deep sense of gratitude, we express sincere thanks to the interdisciplinary studies research committee members: Dr. Joseph Keeping and Professor Scadding, Dr. Fischer and the St. Michael’s Hospital Neuroscience team, and the York University Interdisciplinary Studies programme. We’d also like to thank Belmont House for allowing us unprecedented access to the facility. The attorneys involved and their precious family members whose participation will undoubtedly pave the way for developing caring environments for persons with dementia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).