Beyond Walls: Lessons from a Dementia-Positive Community
September 15 | 2-3pm ET | Earn 1 LU/HSW
Description
As the number of people living with dementia continues to grow, aging service providers are rethinking how they support these individuals, their care partners, families, and communities. A dementia-positive approach challenges traditional assumptions by focusing on abilities rather than limitations and creating environments that support people in living well throughout their journey.
Maley Hunt with LiveWell will join architectural designer, Dustin Julius from RLPS Architects to explore how communities can approach supporting people living with dementia–starting with the individual and expanding to the people who know and support them.
Vision Informs Design – Design Creates Opportunity to Advance the Vision
As the LiveWell community contemplated the expansion of their existing memory care-dedicated campus, they began by collaborating with their community members living with dementia to define their priorities. This inclusive approach radiated out to staff, families, and the broader community.
Once the vision was established, the programming and design process focused on supporting freedom of movement, individual choice, and meaningful engagement rather than managed experiences. The result is a unique plan with free-flowing indoor and outdoor spaces accessed without the use of locked doors. LiveWell's COO will discuss how this plan works from an operations perspective–identifying key elements that can be translated and applied to any community considering renovations or expansion to a memory care environment.
Beyond Walls
LiveWell has a unique approach to serving people living with dementia within their wider community and has incorporated space and programming for a community resource center. Through these programs, the broader community can access tools to strengthen their knowledge of dementia and build the capacity of people who are aging with challenges to live more resiliently.
This Resilient Living Center is programed to mitigate some of the toll of dementia by removing fear of the unknown and providing opportunity to preemptively learn to focus on an individual's capacity instead of what is lost.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how engaging people living with dementia, care partners, and staff during programming can influence planning priorities and design outcomes.
- Learn how the integration of community education and support services into a dementia-focused campus can extend the impact of dementia-positive design beyond residential care.
- Learn how dementia-positive planning and design strategies can support people living with dementia while reducing reliance on restrictive environmental controls.
- Apply lessons from LiveWell’s dementia-positive model to identify practical design and operational strategies that can be adapted to other senior living communities.
Speakers
Maley Hunt, MHA, LNHA
Maley Hunt, MHA, LNHA, is the Chief Operating Officer and Administrator at LiveWell. Maley is a graduate of The George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master of Health Administration with a certificate in Long Term Care. She was previously an Executive Director and Operations Analyst with Hartford HealthCare Senior Services. Maley has presented at national conferences for LeadingAge on Lean Applications in Long Term Care and Fostering Normalcy for People with Dementia and the American College of Health Care Administrators on Nursing Home Administrator Burnout.
Maley is excited to be a part of the LiveWell team and its vision to build a Dementia Positive Community. She is looking forward to continually building on the rich legacy of dementia specialty LiveWell has carved out in Connecticut and further afield.
Dustin Julius, Assoc. AIA
Dustin Julius, Assoc. AIA, is a Partner at RLPS Architects. He focuses on design aspects of senior living projects and is a regular member of our design charrette team. Dustin has also conducted many focus groups and resident presentations and has shared his unique perspective and insights as a speaker at state and national conferences. He is particularly skilled in the development of planning and design scenarios including massing studies, concept sketches, renderings and fly-through videos. Dustin works closely with clients to translate program objectives into design solutions that help to define vernacular and support marketing initiatives.