AWARD. Helle Wijk, Associate Professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy Institute of Health and Care Sciences, has been awarded the 2017 Silviahemmet Grant for Research and Education. She is being recognized for her important work in improving the healthcare facility environments of people with dementia.
Helle Wijk’s research has increased awareness about the importance of using clear, easy-to-understand design in the living environments of people with dementia. Her research has shown that people with dementia retain their ability to perceive colors and contrasts, and that using these features in the design of their living environments can help reinforce memory and increase the ability to orient oneself, in spite of the limitations posed by dementia.
“Being awarded this grant is a valuable acknowledgment of our research into the important role that healthcare facility environmental design plays in patients’ and residents’ health, performance, and well-being, as well as how it contributes to the working environment of health care personnel,” says Helle Wijk.
Emphasizing and Downplaying
Wijk’s research team has studied issues such as ease of orientation, coding, and environmental cues, and Wijk herself has written numerous text books and chapters on the importance of healthcare facility environments. Over the years, Helle Wijk has advised in the planning of many healthcare and assisted living facilities for elderly individuals and people with dementia, all across the country.
“Sometimes one might implement a deliberate color scheme to emphasize contrasts, so that doors, entrances, support railings, and light switches are clearly highlighted for a person whose eyesight is failing, or who has impaired cognition and therefore has difficulty correctly interpreting his or her environment. Or, on the other hand, one might use colors to downplay the importance of objects in the environment that do not require attention, in order to avoid confusion and anxiety,” explains Helle Wijk.
A Royal Honor
The award consists of SEK 50,000 and a certificate, and was presented by Her Majesty Queen Silvia on March 22, in conjunction with Silviahemmet’s Inspiration Day festivities in Stockholm.
“It was a solemn, pleasant, and inspiring experience,” says Helle Wijk, noting that H.M. Queen Silvia has played an important role in the development of health and social care for people with dementia:
“She has taken the initiative to promote major educational and development efforts in the field of dementia – most recently by establishing a housing model for couples where one partner has dementia, in which the physical environment has been adapted to suit their needs. I had the privilege of working on that project in an advisory capacity.”
Helle Wijk currently heads a team of healthcare facility environment researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy Institute of Health and Care Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. Today, the team’s research goes beyond the study of eldercare environments, and extends across the age spectrum:
“Among other things, we have projects dealing with how delivery rooms should be designed in order to provide optimal safety and care, or how special youth homes can be designed to better encourage young peoples’ rehabilitation. Other projects address the subject of curative care environments in the field of forensic psychiatry, or examine the problem of creating safe environments for elderly people living in ordinary residential housing,” elaborates Helle Wijk.
TEXT: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
PHOTO: YANAN LI/SILVIAHEMMET
