The Role of Design in the Development of an Environmental Therapeutic System for the Enhancement of Well-being among People with Dementia and Caregivers

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represents the most common form of Dementia, responsible for cognitive, behavioural and physical impairments, which severely affect people’s ability to fulfil their daily activities. Research shows there is no current treatment that can stop AD from progressing. However, non-pharmacological interventions, supported by pharmacological ones, can temporarily slow the worsening of the symptoms and improve the quality of life for people with AD and their caregivers. Inside the framework of NPTs, research has shown that the environment can be an important support in caring for people with dementia, as it can lessen behavioural disturbances. People with dementia are conscious of the developing onset of the disease, especially as their interactions with the surrounding environment change. As the hippocampal complex, the part of the brain enabling people to locate spatially and to remember spatial relations, is strongly damaged by the disease, people with dementia encounter difficulties in orienting and adapting themselves, especially in new environments. Moreover, the disease affects the patients’ ability to perform daily routine, to locate themselves in a urban area, and cause a strong sense of confusion and inadequateness. Thus, the more a person with dementia loses control and sense of identity over the environment, the more the stimuli coming from the environment influence the patients’ behaviour, and acts as a prosthesis supplying lost capabilities. Which environmental system (in terms of physical environment, conditions and objects) is more efficient to compensate for the person’s declining capacities and to provide the possibility to reclaim autonomy, self-confidence and dignity? Therefore, considering the physical environment as a treatment modality in NPTs for AD, the aim of this paper is to analyse, which are the different possible levels of design interventions in the development of an environmental therapeutic system, and its cognitive and behavioural implications. This means to consider interior design for dementia not only linked to architectural design or adaptation, but moreover, connected to the design of “activators of well-being” independent from the building, focused on enhancing the patients’ well-being, strictly related to the idea of surrounding the patient with a habitat, specifically designed around his needs.