What Do Residents Value Most In a Care Home?

• Privacy and Independence: Residents highly value privacy and independence in a care home. Design features such as partitioning, railings, and strategic use of space can help maintain residents’ privacy and enhance their sense of independence.
• Homeliness: Creating a homely atmosphere is crucial for residents to feel comfortable. Design elements like carpeted floors and low ceilings contribute to a cozy environment that resembles their own home, fostering a sense of belonging.
• Easy Navigation: Residents appreciate an intuitive layout that makes it easy to navigate the care home. Proximity of residents’ rooms to communal areas and amenities ensures convenience and reduces the stress of getting lost, enhancing overall well-being.

When it comes to care home design, it makes sense to start with the most important element of the care home first: the residents themselves.

That is, if you let the wants and needs of the residents inform your design decisions, you are on the right track to creating a successful care home. 

So with this in mind, let’s take a look at what residents value most in a care home.

How To Improve Privacy And Independence Within a Care Home

While care home residents appreciate all of the hard work that staff put in to ensure that they are happy and comfortable, privacy and independence are absolutely essential if residents are to feel properly at home.

Whether it’s through partitioning, railing or strategic use of space, there are a number of ways that you can help residents maintain their privacy and feel more independent.

How To Increase The Homeliness Of a Care Home

Similar to the point about independence, care home residents want to feel as though they’re at home, and not just any home – their home.

This isn’t always easy, given the fact that care homes are shared spaces, but there are certainly ways to achieve this.

For example, carpeted floors and low ceilings are a great way to make a space feel more cosy.

Easy Navigation

The confusion that comes with getting lost can be an extremely distressing experience for a care home resident, which is why having a space that’s easy to navigate is so valuable.

At the core of an easy-to-navigate space is an intuitive layout.

That is, if residents’ rooms are situated close to communal areas and specific amenities, residents will have a much better time.

Access To Outdoor Areas Within a Care Home

We’re animals, at the end of the day, which is why having access to nature is absolutely essential for our mental health.

Residents who have regular access to outdoor areas such as gardens report improved levels of self esteem and reduced anxiety, so make sure that an accessible outdoor space that can be traversed with ease is factored into your care home design.

Aedifice Partnership is a leading consultancy and project management firm specializing in delivering high-quality projects across various sectors, including care homes, residential properties, education establishments, and commercial properties.

Our range of services includes project management, chartered building surveys, CDM and quantity surveying among others.

At Aedifice Partnership, we manage new care and retirement village construction projects throughout the UK.

Call us today to see how we can help you with your next project.