Dignified Dementia Design

Why take part

This free 30-minute webinar is for long-term care professionals who welcome help with dementia design and would like to transform the physical environment at their facility into a more home-like atmosphere.

Register

Wednesday, October 20, 12:30-13:00 EST

All registrants receive a recording of the session and a package of inspiring ideas and examples of projects.

Webinar outline

Familiarity, reminiscence, orientation

Following a short introduction, Kathy Hirsch, owner of Ontario-based Sensory-scapes will take 10-minutes to share examples of projects applying best practice knowledge of crafting an environment for dementia care in order to create meaningful sensory experiences and interactions.

Way-finding, orientation, and privacy

Rahzeb Choudhury co-Founder of True Doors will then take 10-minutes to introduce True Doors, decals that are a uniquely effective design solution, transforming impersonal hallways - where elders spend a great deal of their time - into welcoming, comfortable, and loving neighborhoods with homes. He will share examples from Canada and abroad to demonstrate benefits such as way-finding, orientation, and privacy.

We’ll end with Q&A.

Following the webinar, we will share a package of inspiring ideas and examples for further orientation and reference.

Speakers

Katherine Hirsch

Owner, Sensory-scapes

Kathy discovered Multi-Sensory Environments (MSE) while working as a Special Education Consultant for the Waterloo Region District School Board. While on a field trip to one of the first Snoezelen Rooms in Ontario, Kathy was amazed and intrigued by the immediate positive engagement her cognitively impaired students had with the sensory environment.

Convinced her students would benefit from a Multi-Sensory room of their own, Kathy began researching sensory integration. She worked diligently to raise the funds, educate administration, design a room for her students and incorporate sensory interventions into their programs. The positive experiences in her first “school age” sensory room motivated her to bring the benefits of sensory stimulation to older users… seniors living in Long Term Care living with Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease.

Twenty years later Kathy is still learning more about the positive impacts of sensory integrations, and works to share this knowledge to front line staff caring for seniors. She has assisted all ages (from 5 months to 101 years) and all abilities of people, in schools, long term care homes, adult day programs and hospitals using Multi-Sensory Integration.

Katherine has a degree in Deaf-Blind Intervention and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Sciences from Wilfrid Laurier University. Kathy is a certified Snoezelen trainer and has taught workshops in Sensory Integration and Alzheimer’s care at George Brown College, and the Waterloo Wellington Alzheimer’s Society.

Rahzeb Choudhury

Co-Founder and Executive Director, True Doors

Rahzeb is the founder of the platform company Lifelong Inspiration, which focuses on advancing person-centredness in commerce and society through strategy and technology solutions consulting and product or service development. In long-term care, Lifelong Inspiration is most well known for True Doors®, decals help that improve the lives of people with dementia. True Doors began as a social art and life story project and is now a respected brand adopted from Tasmania to Vancouver.

Rahzeb has been a London city banker, market trend analyst, and globe-trotting language technology entrepreneur. He and his family are based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.