Impact of Care Home Design on Wellbeing and Social Connections of People with Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The functionality, well-being, and quality of life of people living with dementia can be positively impacted by careful environmental design. As a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak, sudden rearrangements were made in the social and physical environment of dementia care residents. The present study aimed to explore the lessons learned regarding the design and use of the built environment during the COVID-19 lockdown and to find how the built environment might contribute positively to improved well-being, and social and physical connection of dementia care residents in the future. In a mixed-method explorative study, social-physical aspects of the built environment that influence quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. In general, buildings with a spacious layout and flexible use of spaces contribute to a higher quality of life and level of resident well-being, improved infection control, greater resilience, and enhances social and physical contact. Currently, the buildings of many care facilities are not designed to accommodate a severely infectious disease outbreak. Additionally, nursing staff have learned the importance of attending to the number of stimuli in the social and built environment and attuning these to individual, instead of group needs. Our findings indicate there is a need for designing and building spacious long-term dementia care facilities that allow for flexible, social and personalized appropriation of spaces.