Surfacing the Need and Concepts for Alternative Design in Long Term Care

Abstract: The coronavirus ‎disease (COVID-19) ‎highlighted the significant impact of Long-Term Care (LTC) home ‘design’ in influencing the quality-of-life (QoL) of residents, their care partners and LTC home staff.  Working remotely with a variety of Ontario LTC homes during the pandemic, Carleton University’s Design for Public Health (Design4PH) Lab, situated within the School of Industrial Design, revealed issues with the design of entrances/exits, resident rooms, ‎shared resident areas, work areas, outdoor spaces, storage, soiled/clean ‎zones, among other areas. These flaws were found to negatively impact the quality of resident life, staff working conditions, while heightening the risk of infectious outbreaks due to crowding, inadequate/ unsupportive spaces and other factors undermining infection prevention and control. In response, the Design4PH Lab with the participation of homes, developed design recommendations and concepts to support older adults, care partners and staff in LTC which we will also share at this session.

Speaker: Chantal Trudel, BA, BID, MSc | Associate Professor, School of Industrial Design at the Carleton University