Flooring
How flooring can help improve dementia care
With a predicted increase in the number of people developing dementia – many of whom will reside in care homes – designing interiors with the needs of those living with the condition in mind is essential. Here, Donna Hannaway, head of marketing UK and Ireland at Forbo Flooring Systems, looks at the key factors that ought to be considered when specifying flooring
When it comes to interior design for care homes, a balance must always be struck between safety, functionality, and comfort. Residents need to be made to feel at home in a comfortable and welcoming environment. However, care home residents may have complex and varied needs due to a range of possible age-related conditions. It is particularly important to consider the effects of dementia when designing interior spaces to ensure residents can navigate these spaces safely and easily. A recent study by Alzheimer’s Society found that currently around one million people in the UK are living with dementia, a figure that is projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040.1
Across the UK’s nearly
17,000 care homes, it is estimated that there are over 300,000 people living with some form of dementia or severe memory problems.2
However, it is important to
remember that dementia is an umbrella term that covers several different types of neurodegenerative conditions, each of which has a different set of symptoms and effects. For example, Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia in the UK, may cause problems with memory, thinking, reasoning, and language. People with Alzheimer’s disease may also develop issues with perception, meaning they have problems seeing things three dimensionally and judging distances. For people with Lewy body dementia, it is movement and motor control that are primarily affected, with memory less impacted than with other dementia types. This means a person may be more prone to falls, have tremors, shuffle when they walk, and experience visual or auditory hallucinations due to damage to nerve cells in the brain.
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In addition, the challenges of dementia are made more complex when combined with other age-related conditions, such as hearing and sight loss. For example, 80 per cent of people over 70 have some type of hearing loss,3
while one in five people aged
75 and over are living with sight loss. This figure rises to 50 per cent for those aged 90 and over.4
There are resources available that
provide detailed guidance on creating inclusive spaces for neurodiverse people, which includes people with dementia. Among these is the new British Standards Institution (BSI) Publicly Available Specification (PAS) Design for the mind –
When it comes to adjacent areas of flooring, the contrast should be as small as possible
Neurodiversity and the Built Environment – Guide.5
The role of flooring
As one of the biggest surfaces in any building, the flooring specified can have a significant impact on the experiences of residents. The first factor to consider is the tonal contrast of the flooring to other elements of the interior. A greater contrast should be achieved between critical surfaces, such as floors to walls and doors to walls, to allow those with dementia or visual impairments to see the area three-dimensionally and move more easily through the space. Tonal contrast is determined by the Light Reflectance Value (LRV). This is the measure of the percentage of visible and useable light reflected from a surface when illuminated by a light source. It is recommended that a difference of 30 degrees of LRV is achieved between critical surfaces.
When it comes to adjacent areas of
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com March 2025
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