Creative Spaces - dementia and environment

The Creative Spaces project creates opportunities for older people with dementia to improve their environments, strengthen their communities and play a more active part in society. The project is based in mid-Cornwall, an area of social and economic disadvantage.

Activities include story-telling, community events such as fêtes and garden parties, concerts, meetings and design consultations. The activities will be designed to strengthen the links between young and old through shared experience. The outdoor spaces surrounding the care homes will provide a venue for most of these activities. The intention is to change the perception of the care home from an isolated facility to a centre of community life.

Older people with dementia often feel isolated and stigmatised within their communities. Lack of social contact and meaningful experiences exacerbate isolation, depression and feelings of worthlessness. These impacts are shared by families and carers.

Research from the USA and UK shows that the lives of people with dementia can be significantly improved by making changes to their environment that support a sense of meaning and purpose. They benefit from opportunities to use creative skills that employ undamaged parts of the brain, leading to a renewed confidence and improved ability to make connections with their wider community. Housing managers and carers understand this and want to create more supportive environments but lack knowledge of how to do so.

Training, alongside working with older people with dementia, will enable them to learn skills to create positive environments and shared activities. People typically live with dementia for 10 – 12 years, and by 2025 it is estimated 1 million people in the UK will have dementia. Dementia sufferers, their families and carers form a significant, if currently hidden, proportion of a community.

This project will help improve the quality of life for people with dementia and the quality of care they receive by integrating care facilities more closely with the communities they are part of.

Aims

• Older people with dementia will have improved quality of life and reduced isolation through improved support services, access to activities and outdoor environments, and greater connection with the local community.
• Carers, including family members and care professionals, will acquire new skills, build confidence and capability in designing supportive services and environments for people with dementia through training and workshops.
• Young people will acquire new skills and ability in the planning, design and maintenance of outdoor space and improved understanding of dementia and diversity within their community by participating in work-related training and activities.
• Members of the local community will have greater understanding of dementia and the ways in which people with dementia, their families and carers can be more connected to their local community, through participation in events, activities and visits.
• Carers and service providers will be better informed about how to provide supportive services and environments for people with dementia through training, guidance and participatory events.
  

Registered Charity No. 1020670. Company limited by guarantee No. 02811046

© 2010 Sensory Trust