A New Tool for Evaluating Senior Living Environments

By Scott King

With a lack of attention given to environmental components of residential care, a new tool has been proposed to assess the impact of various aspects of a senior living community’s physical layout on residents. This instrument focuses on older adults’ psychosocial needs and “affordances” and considers the question, “what does the environment offer its users?”

A review of literature from design practitioners, care providers, and gerontologists led to a set of seven design principles that would form the basis of the scale. For each design principle, nine or 10 items were generated to measure specific components, resulting in 63 items. The seven design principles were: Contact with the World Beyond the Facility; Indoor/Outdoor Connection; Freedom, Choice, and Variety; Comfortability and Accessibility; Enjoyment of Nature; Place to be Active; and Safety and Security.

Initial support of the instrument’s validation came from correlations between its scores and staff and resident surveys at facilities in Houston, Chicago, and Seattle (selected for their diversity in climates). Research assistants administered surveys assessing residents’ levels of outdoor usage, walking, family visitation, and satisfaction, and measured the most heavily used outdoor spaces at each facility through the environmental evaluation tool. Preliminary analyses at the facility level show significant correlations between residents’ and researchers’ assessments of outdoor areas in several areas.

Future analyses could provide a system to weigh the components that best predict important outcome variables, including residents’ level of outdoor usage. The author hopes to transform the instrument into an easy-to-use checklist after further refinement is performed.

To obtain a copy of this report, e-mail Scott King at sking@matherlifeways.com.

Source: Rodiek, S. (2008). A new tool for evaluating senior living environments. Seniors Housing & Care Journal, 16, 3-9.

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