Designing Residential Lighting to Prevent Falls
Host Institution: Providence Health Care
Individuals with dementia often experience challenges with sensory input and interpreting the environment. They can take longer to adapt to sudden light changes and may experience an increased sensitivity to glare. Light and other visual disturbances can cause illusions and misperceptions that put them at a higher risk of falling.
Funded by an award of $50,000, the illuminAID project team of academic design and residential seniors’ care experts in Vancouver, British Columbia is designing a working prototype of an innovative lighting system that provides light where and when it is needed in various environments.
The project team will develop the lighting system and then test it in a residential care home setting to determine whether it helps decrease the number of falls and sleep disturbances at night. As a secondary outcome measure, they will also track the number of staff reporting an improved ability to do their job as the number of falls and sleep disturbances declines.
Once tested and validated, this prototype will be refined to increase resident autonomy and to provide lighting where and when it is needed.