Design Charrette: Building Salutogenic Long-Term Care Homes

This one-day event is an in-person “Design Charrette” on building salutogenic (health-promoting) long-term care homes. It will focus on developing design solutions that respond to “key concerns” in long-term care homes, the culmination of this year’s Health Services, Systems, and Policy Research (HSSPR) Seminar Series, “Advances in Aging Environments Research & Practice.”

What is a Design Charrette? A design charrette is an idea-generating approach to problem-solving commonly used in architecture and urban planning. 

What is the purpose of this event? It aims to bridge the divide between scientific research and practice and propose potential solutions to real-world problems by applying the knowledge synthesized across the disparate disciplines represented through our HSSPR Seminar Series. 

How will the day unfold? Participants, organized in teams of interdisciplinary care providers/ practitioners, team leads, and trainees, will be asked to propose design solutions to respond to key concerns in long-term care homes. Participants will be working with multidisciplinary leaders/ experts in practice and academe from diverse disciplines (e.g., architecture, gerontology, health services research, nursing, and social work). At the conclusion of the design charrette, teams will present their design proposals and engage in discussions with industry and academic leaders/ experts, decision-makers, and end-users.

Program: 

• 8:00 am – 8:50 am | Breakfast (provided) 
• 8:50 am – 9:00am | Opening remarks [Virtual option available]
• 9:00 am – 9:30 am | Keynote presentation by Dr. Margaret Calkins on the evidence-based design in Long-Term Care Homes [Virtual option available]
• 9:30 am – 10:00 am | Care providers/ practitioners share real-world concerns and reflect on the keynote presentation
• 10:00 am – 10:15 am | Q & A session and an overview of the design charrette
• 10:15 am – 10:30 am | Break
• 10:30 am – 12:00 pm | Teams of multidisciplinary members work together to address key concerns
• 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm | Lunch (provided)
• 12:45 pm – 3:00 pm | Teams of multidisciplinary members work together to address key concerns
• 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm | Presentations and Discussions

The presentation portions of the charrette will be made virtual and accessible to the public and promoted through social media. This open forum is intended to foment public discourse on the role of physical and psychosocial environments in the health of older adults and workers in long-term care homes and to demonstrate the value of evidence-based design founded on multidisciplinary knowledge.