Launched to coincide with World Alzheimer’s Day, the book Creating Empowering Environments for People with Dementia is a timely look at both the challenges that people living with dementia can face, as well as solutions.
This book includes some of the world leading experts on dementia inclusive design, such as Richard Fleming, Emily Ong, Maggie Calkins, Kevin Charras, Mary Marshall, Hilde Verbeek, Leslie Chalmers, John Zeisel and many more. It describes the history of inclusive design, the present state of the art and the future presented by early career researchers. Chapters discuss inclusive environments from hospitals and care homes to cities and villages.
As co-editor Professor Bob Woods (Bangor University) explains: “Most importantly in the book, there is an emphasis on the involvement and engagement of people living with dementia – something undreamt of fifty years ago – both in terms of contribution to the book, but also how we can set about empowering people living with dementia to interact with and influence their environment to design an environment that enables each person to live their best life.”
For Professor Eef Hogervorst, this latest publication is part of a long research journey that has seen her explore dementia diagnostics, development of lifestyle related preventative treatments, and how design can help people to remain independent following diagnosis. It follows her co-authored book on The Chris and Sally house which used evidence-based principles (based on a specially adapted Victorian property) to develop independent living at home for people living with dementia.
The release of “Creating Empowering Environments for People with Dementia” comes ahead of an upcoming hybrid conference on inclusive dementia design that will be held at Loughborough University on the 29th November. This event will include keynotes, lectures and a poster session as well as a roundtable to discuss the way forward and possible international collaborations. Details of the event will be published in the near future.
An Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.