practical living
Motifs used in The Front Door project. All photos: Supplied
Doors to the past
A simple initiative has given
residents a connection to their
new home and their old one.
By Dallas Bastian
A
West Australian aged care facility
is providing residents with a door
to the past by transforming the
entryways to rooms.
The Front Door project sees Bethanie
residents’ doors decorated with unique
designs, some of which may be similar to
the front doors of previous homes or reflect
a style of architecture or design they enjoy.
The concept, rolled out at the provider’s
Bethanie Fields facility in Eaton, aims to
help trigger fond memories for residents.
Bethanie occupational therapist Kristy
Alexandratos said if residents and families
were unable to choose a motif, the team
researched their favourite colours and
traditional styles of doors from their
home towns.
“Some inspiration came from the
Dementia Australia website and, in addition,
one of the Bethanie team members had
visited a loved one in the Netherlands
where their facility had done something
similar,” Alexandratos said.
Bethanie Fields resident Elizabeth
Bowron chose her door design due to her
love of the colour blue and the open sky,
while resident Carole Barber wanted a
welcoming design for her door. “I chose it
because it has windows and more detail on
it and the wood was different – that’s a bit
antique looking,” she explained.
The team said the new doors
have already sparked discussion and
reminiscence between residents and staff.
Alexandratos added the project was a
reflection of the fact that dementia is a
different experience for each individual.
16 agedcareinsite.com.au
“We are hoping that with this project we
can connect even more personally to every
one of our residents and help to bring back
some cherished memories.
“Not only will it assist with orientation,
but it will replace the clinical atmosphere
on our dementia-specific wing to make it
a more homely environment.”
Fellow aged care provider Warrigal also
decided to change the facade of residents’
doors. It has backed up the project
with research recently published in the
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal.
Community facilitator Alexandria
Varshawsky said the project came about
when she was looking for ways to change
the environmental design of Warrigal’s
dementia-specific sites and to provide their
residents with more of a connection to
their home.
The Warrigal team tested the intervention
across 12 rooms in a single site at Albion
Park Rail and, after receiving positive
feedback from residents, decided to roll it
out across other facilities in NSW, including
its new aged care home in Shell Cove.
Varshawsky said the change to the door
designs gave residents more ownership of
their own space.
“It just gave them a little bit more
independence as to finding their own
home and in terms of who they are as an
individual,” she explained.
Warrigal also involved residents in
the designs of their doors to help with
navigation and took into account favourite
colours and designs. They also added
house numbers to the facades to create
multiple connections between residents
and their doors.
Varshawsky said an unexpected finding
of the study was the level of excitement that
residents had about the doors.
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