Purpose In order to facilitate ageing-in-place (AiP) with dementia, a digital consultancy tool (DCT) was designed to facilitate modifications to the home environment. In the Netherlands, about 65% of the 270,000 older adults with dementia live in their own dwelling. At the same time, 40% of the Dutch housing stock is not appropriate for older adults to live independently1 . Admission to a nursing home is usually caused by stress and a straining of the family carers. Caring for a person with dementia requires constant vigilance. Although admission to a nursing home cannot always be avoided, admission may be postponed by modifying the dwelling and through the use of technology. At present, persons with dementia are not able to adjust their dwelling to suit their needs. Therefore, it is important that carers and installers have access to information on how to design a dwelling in a dementia-friendly way. Method Based on publications about housing facilities2 , thermal comfort3 and dementiafriendly space plan4 , the design for a DCT for AiP was made. The design of the DCT will be discussed in focus group sessions in Alzheimer Cafés with persons with dementia and their family carers. First, sessions will be held about the requirements for the web tool for dementia-friendly design. After gathering the requirements and verification to (inter)national guidelines concerning the accessibility of webpages, focus group sessions will be held with user groups in order to test the usability of the preliminary DCT. Results & Discussion Results of this process are a webpage with descriptions of how to create a dementia-friendly dwelling for AiP with dementia. On the webpage dementia-friendly modifications of the living environment will be ordered by problem/function or space. Problems are categorized by (I)ADL tasks, behaviour, or cognitive problems. Adjustments of spaces are categorized by the combined model of WHO’s ICF and the Model of Integrated Building Design3,5.
Dementievriendelijkheid, wat verstaan we daaronder? Een mooi woord voor de inclusie van mensen met dementie en mantelzorgers in de maatschappij. Op dit moment zijn er in Nederland al 280.000 mensen die leven met dementie. In 2040 is dit aantal naar verwachting verdubbeld naar meer dan een half miljoen. Grote kans dat we er allemaal in meer of mindere mate in onze eigen omgeving mee te maken krijgen. Tijdens het werk, in de familie- of vriendenkring, maar ook in de eigen buurt of de eigen straat.
Urban ageing is an emerging domain that deals with the population of older people living in cities. The ageing of society is a positive yet challenging phenomenon, as population ageing and urbanisation are the culmination of successful human development. One could argue whether the city environment is an ideal place for people to grow old and live at an old age compared to rural areas. This viewpoint article explores and describes the challenges that are encountered when making cities age-friendly in Europe. Such challenges include the creation of inclusive neighbourhoods and the implementation of technology for ageing-in-place. Examples from projects in two age-friendly cities in The Netherlands (The Hague) and Poland (Cracow) are shown to illustrate the potential of making cities more tuned to the needs of older people and identify important challenges for the next couple of years. Overall, the global ageing of urban populations calls for more age-friendly approaches to be implemented in our cities. It is a challenge to prepare for these developments in such a way that both current and future generations of older people can benefit from age-friendly strategies. CC-BY Original article: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112473 https://www.dehaagsehogeschool.nl/onderzoek/lectoraten/details/urban-ageing#over-het-lectoraat
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