Tölvumál - 01.10.2013, Side 23

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Since its launch in March 2012, the Virtual Care Home has been viewed
30,000 times by users in 72 countries, and won a number of awards.
Feedback indicates that it is both welcomed, and making a difference:
• „This is an excellent resource“
• „I think the virtual care home is fabulous…“
• „Thank you so much for the informative virtual guide for
environments for people with dementia. I had so much fun
browsing through them and I also learned a lot“
• „Very helpful and easy to access“
• „Loved the virtual home. Light, bright, every surface illuminated
well. Colours uplifting. Thank you so much, I’d heard of this virtual
home and am so glad to be able to see it“
• „An excellent and useful idea“
• „It’s a great source of ideas that could be implemented based
on observation of [our] own environment and residents. Design
principles are very helpful indeed“
The Virtual Care Home incorporates the knowledge of the DSDC’s
team of expert clinicians, design specialists, lighting and sound
professionals, and academic researchers. It shows how even small
design changes can significantly enhance lives. For instance replacing
patterned flooring that can confuse the eye (or shiny flooring that looks
unsafe to people with dementia) with single-colour matt flooring,
reduces trip and fall accidents, and promotes way-finding.
Similarly, replacing solid doors on wardrobes and kitchen cupboards
with glass ones promotes independence by helping people to locate
things they might be looking for. And ensuring that the toilet is visible
from a person’s bed or armchair facilitates continence.
It sounds obvious when it’s pointed out – and that’s the purpose of the
Virtual Care Home: to inform as many people as possible, wherever
they may live, about the simple steps they can take to enhance the lives
of people with dementia.
The dementia-friendly Virtual Care Home is intended for use by
architects, planners and commissioners who may be considering new
builds, as much as for people who are already providing care in a
variety of settings – including family carers who are looking after loved
ones with dementia at home.
It is proving such a success that the DSDC team has now developed a
similar resource – the dementia-friendly Virtual Hospital – for use in
acute care settings.
This is of particular importance because the majority of people who use
hospital services are older people, and they are the ones who are most
likely to develop dementia. Yet modern hospitals are typically the least
dementia-friendly environments imaginable.
Again, with thoughtful planning and adaptation, hospitals can do a
great deal to support the needs of people with dementia. And to
support this, the DSDC’s Virtual Hospital (launched on 4 October this
year) presents 15 acute area layouts, modelled to highlight the features
that make a difference.
Thanks to a grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Virtual
Hospital is accessible by anyone wishing to know how to design – or
redesign – their ward and clinic settings, wherever they are in the world.
After all, dementia is a condition that recognises no boundaries, so care
improvements have to have international application.
The ideas contained in the DSDC’s virtual care settings are all low-cost
and high-impact, and are based on evidence and global consensus. As
innovation, research and ideas develop, the resources will be updated.
That’s why we would welcome your response to the exciting online
tools we are developing. Please let us know what you think of them,
and help us to make them even better as time goes by.
The DSDC is dedicated to driving care improvement for the world’s
fast-expanding population of people with dementia. Our team will
continue to extend the knowledge base through research, and keep on
delivering the practical support that promotes best practice through our
website, our design consultancy and audit, the DSDC’s renowned
Design School training and education, and the international networking
that our committed people undertake.
The DSDC, and its growing army of care improvement partners around
the world, share one overarching objective: to make the world a better
place for people living with dementia. And if we get that right, we get it
right for everyone.