Woonzorg Nederland, Alzheimer Nederland and KAW launch toolkit Dementia-friendly residential building

Commissioned by senior housing provider Woonzorg Nederland and in collaboration with Alzheimer Nederland and KAW, the Dementia Friendly Living toolkit has been updated. The toolkit focuses on the immediate living environment of seniors and provides tools for three target groups: (commercial) developer, complex manager and tenant. The other parties involved in updating the toolkit are Aedes, ActiZ and the DEEL Academy of TU Eindhoven.

Joining forces

The previous 2018 Dementia-Friendly Design Toolkit from the Living-Care Knowledge Center was in need of updating due to changes in the caregiving landscape. In addition to updating the existing toolkit, much new information focused on the residential building has been added. This prepares us for the care task ahead. By combining the strengths of all parties involved and making use of everyone's own specialism, a wonderful end result has been achieved. The toolkit is available digitally on the Alzheimer Nederland platform, but will also be actively disseminated by the partners in their own networks.

Initiative

Due in part to an aging population and a shortage of care spaces, seniors are living at home longer, and the number of tenants with dementia is increasing. One of the challenges of the coming years is that the number of people with dementia is growing dramatically to more than half a million by 2040. This is the reality at all housing associations, but also in our daily living environment. A dementia-friendly building and guidance from managers, (co-)tenants and social environment are essential for the self-reliance of this group of seniors. This is why Woonzorg Nederland has taken the initiative, together with Alzheimer Nederland and KAW, to revise the 'Dementia-friendly living' toolkit and combine all the knowledge gained from all partners in a new toolkit. The toolkit has been expanded with additions relevant to housing corporations, (commercial) developers and managers.

Social impact

Due to the high social impact of the toolkit, there has been frequent contact with the Ministries of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). They have expressed their support for this initiative and its rollout. "As a senior housing provider, we look beyond just the bricks and mortar, but also how we can ensure that tenants enjoy living with each other and independently, and what is needed to achieve this. In addition to appropriate housing and living communities, we are now going a step further and combining this with a structural dementia-friendly approach. By already taking into account adaptations for this target group when developing our complexes, as well as teaching our resident advisors to recognize behavior and symptoms. We now share this knowledge in the toolkit, this provides a good guideline for housing corporations, (commercial) developers and managers," said Willemijn Souren, program manager for housing at Woonzorg Nederland.

Gerjoke Wilmink, director Alzheimer Nederland: "The construction and design of a home makes a world of difference for a resident with dementia. By making a home and also the environment dementia-friendly, people with dementia can live independently and more pleasantly for longer. Those dementia-friendly choices are good for everyone, including people without dementia. We can't wait to take this up broadly, it's important and necessary! Because 1 in 5 people will get dementia and aging is the biggest risk factor. So especially when building senior housing, it is important to make that dementia-friendly choice." Alzheimer Nederland is pleased with the dementia-friendly residential building toolkit. "This way we can help builders and managers make dementia-friendly choices. This is not always about more and more expensive, but about the right basic choices. Great to give concrete tips for that," said Wilmink

''Our society and our living environment is changing. Dementia-friendly design is of great social importance, since everyone can be affected by dementia at some point. It is part of making our housing and living environment socially and ecologically sustainable. The fact that KAW was approached to focus the earlier toolkit 'Dementia Friendly Design' more on the role of housing corporations was a very nice request," says Hilda Hoekstra, consultant at KAW. The challenge here is always to make suggestions that result in an aesthetic and functional residential building that at the same time specifically meets the needs and capabilities of residents with dementia. We aim for a residential environment that is not immediately recognizable as a dementia care facility, but still subtly supports people with dementia so that they can act independently and feel safe and secure. The toolkit helps to make trade-offs in this and understand how you can make a big impact with small but the right choices.''