Hi everyone, I really need some ideas, suggestions or anything that may help.

As you walk around our home every hall way is the same nothing makes identifying where a residents room is , toilets ect (other than the signs im making at the moment for the home) and alot of our reisdents with dementia do get lost in the home very easily. Our home is a intergrated home with no Dementia unit. Does anyone have any ideas of how to make each of the corridors different. There is alot of unused space on the walls so maybe doing things to go up on the wall or themeing the corridors in the home.

Thank -you
C

Hi calsenior,

How about colour coding? A different colour for each corridor, you don't need to paint them just put up pictures and signs in different colours. Or you could have coloured lines to follow that lead to different destinations.

Hope that helps

Aunty Sue

Hi Calsenior,

You can do one thing put sign boards before every room of your residence. It might help residents with dementia recognize their place.

Jerry Hanks

Hi calsenior, I would like to suggest you to use different types of fixed objects in each corridor so that dementia patients can easily identify on the basis of them. Although beside it I also agree with Aunty sue and that will also be a good idea. Alternatively you can change the interior of the corridors like you can change the interiors of each corridor to enable different identity.

My home had a dementia unit - we had photos of the clients on their bedroom doors, maybe things that were special to them such as a picture of their family - also their name. In the corridors we had pictures of "old fashioned" adverts - Birds custard, Bisto etc - used to be good talking points! We had signs in each corridor , pointing to the toilets, bathrooms, dining room etc . We painted all the toilet doors the same colour but a diifferent colour to the other rooms ( we also found out what colour each clients front door at home had been and painted their bedroom door this colour - very individual and colourful and did help them to "home in" on their rooms). On the walls we also had "fiddleboxes" - window boxes fixed at waist height and filled with all sorts of things to simulate memories and conversation, such as old fashioned hats, sensory items, pictures etc

I would agree with colour coding, paint/paper the corridors in different colours, use pictures/ wall art in the same colour palet. I also agree with having some perosnal identifiers on the doors of the individuals rooms, some homes have a shelf outside each room with a vase, ornament belonging to the individual also.

I wouldn't say signs alone are entirely effective with dementia patients. Colour coding them would be best.