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Within the care setting, the bedroom is the one place that can be identified as a person’s own. It is a place of refuge where identity is reinforced through familiar objects and environmental cues. It is an oasis within the care community, the importance of which can have incalculable value to residents, family and friends. The bedroom provides carers with a constant reminder that where they work is where another lives. It is also a place where people right across the spectrum of ability must be supported in carrying out a wide range of daily living tasks.

One of the Outputs of the study

See more of the project here

Wellbeing and self-esteem are linked to personal appearance. In short, looking good can help you feel good and retaining one’s identity through appearance can be a positive experience for a resident as well as portraying a positive image to others. Dressing is a fundamental activity of daily living and the gradual loss of this ability by care residents can be very stressful and frightening.

The Wardrobe
The wardrobe is the hub for dressing and should provide care and support for longevity of use at every stage of dementia.

1. Height Reduction and Accessibility
According to research by Renray Healthcare, the average height of a person in care is 5 ft 3 ins. This makes traditional wardrobe heights inaccessible, compounded by age-related stiffness and other physical ailments. A significant proportion of residents will also be in a wheelchair at some point. Full-height wardrobes contain many inaccessible features based purely on the height. Lower areas can be just as inaccessible for older people. The wardrobe has been split into daily use (the doors) and seasonal use (the bottom drawers). The latter is explained further below.

2. Colour and Materiality
A combination of two contrasting materials helps those with sight problems to understand where to interact with the product. Use of good quality hardwood laminates creates variations in surface texture; they are also hygienic, easy to clean and long-lasting.

3. Handles
The oversized handle is a good example of the chosen aesthetic, its size and prominence suggesting its function. Heavily contrasted against the white background, the handle is easily visible for those with sight loss. Reaching from top to bottom allows taller residents and those in wheelchairs the same access point. As the one main point of interaction, the handle is made of hardwood to achieve a quality feel.

4. Drawers
Signs on drawers are evident in current homes and offer many benefits, even though residents, family and carers suggested that this approach might be stigmatising. By designing a new drawer front so that it is able to show the contents whilst remaining as similar to a standard drawer design as possible, gives the person cues to the whereabouts of specific items of clothing while making the signage redundant.

5. Personalisation
Personalisation should exist in as many places as possible to give comfort, enable communication and assist in identifying ownership. Having pictures of loved ones, hobbies and other topics relating to a person’s personal history placed on the wardrobe will help
residents recognise that the possessions they are interacting with are their own.

6. Out-of-season storage
It is important not to confuse residents with too many clothing choices. In this wardrobe, summer and winter clothing areas have been separated to reduce choice. Out-of-season clothes are able to be stored on site by designing the drawers to be naturally inaccessible for residents. Placing the drawers low, to the back and with no environmental cues as to operation limits access without the need for a lock or to store them in an offsite location. However the possessions stay with their owner.

7. Low Tech Illumination
Illumination is important because it assists the older eye to see better. It also highlights areas of interaction by providing better contrast. This is an area of focus for some wardrobe developments for dementia and is usually met by an electric-powered light to intensify the light. Low-tech solutions should be used wherever possible to cut down on cost and maintenance. Here, the design allows environmental light to penetrate the wardrobe more deeply.

8. Hangers
Specialised hangers have been developed so that whole outfits can be stored on one hanger. The design is different from traditional hangers by lowering the second level. Hanging whole outfits together makes storage and selection of clothing easier for residents and carers alike.

9. Assistive Care Suggestion
When the time comes that a person needs assistance in dressing, it is good care practice to give the resident two choices. Carers currently lay clothes out on a bed for residents to make a decision. A carer can now hang two options in combination with the specialised hangers on the white background of the front doors. This enables the resident to see how the cloths would look in a vertical layout and at the right scale without the need to conceptualise clothes stacked on a bed. Clothes hanging up in a ready-to-wear format may help an advanced-stage dementia resident anticipate the activity that is about to take place.