Adapting Senior Living Communities to Residents’ Changing Senses


BY LISA ROEPE A


s we age, we are likely to experi- ence changes in our senses; our ability to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch may diminish or be altered. Changes to our sight in-


clude a reduced ability for our eyes to adjust to changes in light or to distinguish colors, and an increased sensitivity to glare, says Dr. John New- man, a geriatrician at the University of Califor- nia at San Francisco and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, and age-related macular degeneration also take a toll on our sight. As we come less sen- sitive to light, our day and night rhythms also may change, impacting our circadian rhythm. Our ability to hear decreases. We become more


sensitive to high frequency noises and less able to filter out background noise, says r. dgar Pierlu- issi, medical director of the Acute Care for Elders Unit and the interim division chief for hospital medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. Our sense of taste changes and food might not taste as good, either because of changes in our


sense of smell or because we are taking medica- tion that alters the way food tastes, giving it a me- tallic or bitter flavor, ewman says. ven touch can be affected by age, as our hands, fingers, and feet typically experience numbness. Fortunately, senior living communities are


finding ways to adapt their environments to help residents compensate for these changes. Here are some of the innovative ways senior living commu- nities are using the science of aging research to better serve their residents.


VISION To help designers understand how older residents see colors many use special glasses that mimic the yellowing of the cornea that affects our ability to distinguish colors as we age. Reds become rusti- er and blues look muddy, says Dean Maddalena, president of senior living community design firm studioSIX5 in Austin, Texas. “You see a blue and gray carpet and think it looks too busy but it might almost look solid to an older person,” he says.


32 SENI LIVIN EECTIVE / ISSUE 3 2017


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