Environments for Aging Conference, Part I

This blog post was written by architect and associate Jessica Warren. Jessica recently attended the Environments for Aging Conference and we asked her to share some of her experience there. Below is Part I of II.

I have been attending the Environments for Aging Conference for 5 years, and continue to be just as enthusiastic about it now as I was during my first conference. Each experience is unique, and each year participants have the opportunity to share the wealth of knowledge that exists between us. Though this year’s conference was largely the same rewarding experience, I did experience one major change: for the first time I was a session presenter. Alongside St. Catherine’s Village Executive Director Mary Margaret Judy, I had the opportunity to share what we had both learned from 17 years of designing and operating a memory care community. There are not many senior living communities that have done this specialized work for so many years, and Campbell Cove has been caring for residents and adapting their practice for nearly two decades.

We presented specifically on Campbell Cove’s 24 resident room addition. This project has three specific aspects worth noting:

1. It is a highly flexible space. Though it may currently serve as memory care assisted living, the space has the ability to adapt should a resident’s acuity level increase. That would allow the resident to stay in the space they’ve called home and still receive skilled nursing care.

This was an especially important consideration. Moving a memory care resident to a skilled nursing unit is over stimulating, and residents’ tend to have a superior quality of life when they’re allowed to stay in a familiar environment.

2. Using St. Catherine’s feedback and looking to trends across the industry, we designed a flexible space that was reflective of both what we had learned and the direction we saw memory care taking. Between what we had learned in our nearly two decades in the building and looking to industry thought leaders, we were able to create an even better experience for residents.

3. Lastly, we enlarged resident rooms and added showers in an effort to make the space feel more like home.

Following our presentation, we had a chance to speak with some of our session’s participants. We received a lot of positive feedback, including one man stating that our work at Campbell Cove was was the most innovative memory care floor plan that he had seen. It was a wonderful experience and left us both excited for future conferences and energized for the work yet to be done.