Care-home environments and well-being : identifying the design features that most affect older residents

The physical environment has been shown to influence the quality of life and well-being of older people in care homes, but little is known about the role of individual design features. This paper presents the findings of a year-long U.K. study funded by the Department of Health and carried out jointly by researchers at Oxford Brookes University and the University of Warwick. The overall aim of the research was to identify the aspects of care-home design that appear to have the greatest influence on the wellbeing of older residents. The research is an explorative study of residents' perceptions based on qualitative, semi-structured personal interviews with 81 residents in 20 care homes in Oxfordshire and Coventry. Like previous studies, our findings confirm that views of nature and greenery are important, but the findings also suggest that open-plan layouts and practical, easily accessible design are influential