Creating healthcare environments that promote the safety of patients and staff while facilitating treatment is a universally accepted priority of modern design. One area where cohesive design is becoming increasingly important is residential healthcare, which encompasses not only senior living but also rehabilitation, behavioral health, memory care and mental health. These communities, although healthcare environments, are residential in nature, and the people who live there must feel safe and secure. The built environment can support this through understanding of the underlying human need and selecting appropriate finishes.
The human need in residential healthcare is influenced by a variety of factors, but one of the most significant is North America’s rapidly growing 65-plus population. With aging comes a natural decline in eyesight, hearing and motor skills, which impairs the ability to perceive surroundings. In addition to natural aging, there are a growing number of residents with cognitive impairment, chronic illness, behavioral issues and mental illness. These factors result in an environment that is more difficult to understand and navigate, making everyday tasks stressful and frustrating. In response, healthcare design has shifted focus from traditional sterile-looking aesthetics towards creating calm, welcoming residential environments.
One of the key objectives in residential healthcare is to promote wellness. There is an increasing trend toward the use of bright, optimistic color palettes compared to traditional neutral options. This is because they are easier for the aging eye to perceive. Color, selected to enhance the purpose of an area, can also alter psychology and physiology, enhancing the wellness of residents.
Understanding that residents engage all of their senses to sort through disorientation and navigate their environments, acoustic properties need to be considered in material selection. Materials with integrated sound reduction help create a built environment that fosters relaxation and connection. For example, when residents can sit in a quiet dining area and engage in conversation, it creates connection and combats the perception of being isolated.
The Village Langley // NSDA Architects
While color palettes and acoustics are key components of residential healthcare design, other design elements can contribute to not only wellness but also independence. The Facilities Guidelines Institute’s (FGI) Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care and Support Facilities touches on a number of these elements in selecting flooring and wall materials. To prevent visual misperception, FGI recommends non-glare finishes with small, low-contrast patterns.
Visual perception is a complex process with one very important component being how edges and boundaries are perceived. This requires consideration when designing elements that contribute to orientation and wayfinding. Contrasting colors may create visual changes that help distinguish one space from another, but the amount of light reflected from surfaces plays a major role in keeping residents safe and secure. The best measurement of contrast between surfaces is their light reflectance value (LRV). Every material has a LRV marked on a scale of 1-100, with one absorbing light (black) and 100 reflecting it (white).
Residential healthcare design must not only consider environments that promote wellness and independence, but also foster safety and security. FGI recommends slip-resistant surfaces on ramps/entries, in bathing areas and in kitchens. The appropriate choice of flooring to prevent slips/falls depends on a number of factors, such as demographics (residents, care providers or support staff), surface contamination (water or grease) and pressures on finishes (wheel chairs, heat and moisture).
Transitions between different flooring materials as well as between floors and walls, if not done properly, can have a high potential for injury. Proper detailing is necessary to ensure residents can safely navigate without tripping on flooring or scraping their hands on walls and corner guards. In order to reduce the risk of injury due to fall incidents, user fatigue or musculoskeletal injury, FGI recommends reviewing softer materials with insulated backings that ‘give.’
Understanding the increasing fragility of people in residential healthcare and selecting the appropriate finishes to promote wellness, support independence and foster safety and security is key to creating households, neighborhoods and communities that encourage connection and inclusivity. Residential healthcare design, when done well, can provide homes to residents regardless of their level of fragility or disability that are safe and contribute to a sense of belonging that is central to health and well-being.
