Designing dementia-friendly hospital environments

The proportion of people with dementia in general hospitals continues to increase. Little attention has been paid to the impact of the physical environment of the hospital on their care. The King's Fund's Enhancing the Healing Environment programme worked with 26 NHS trusts in England to develop more supportive design for people with dementia. Projects ranged from improvements to ward environments and social spaces to the development of gardens. The evaluation found that relatively simple, cost-effective changes to the physical environment of care have positive effects on people with dementia and those using and working in the services. These include reducing agitation and distress and raising staff morale. From this work a set of design principles for dementia friendly design has been developed together with evidence based environmental assessment tools for hospital and ward environments. The tools are free to download and are being used extensively nationally and internationally.