Although estimates suggest that, on average, some 30 per cent of all patients in general acute medical wards may have some form of dementia, Stirling University’s Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC).
One of the leading international knowledge centres working to improve the lives of dementia sufferers, says progress in designing healthcare facilities that address such patients’ needs has been ‘patchy at best’.
With the number of individuals living with dementia expected to double in the next 25 years, the DSDC has recently worked with Edinburgh-based architects, Burnett Pollock Associates, to develop an online resource that clearly illustrates, via 15 simulated ‘dementia-friendly’ healthcare ‘spaces’, some of the key principles to consider when designing effectively for this fast-growing group. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, attended the launch of the so-called ‘Virtual Hospital’.
The official launch of the new online resource took place at the Design Council’s London headquarters, and was attended by an audience that included architects, designers, NHS and private sector care professionals looking after those with dementia, clinicians, and healthcare estates and facilities personnel.
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