S9: Green care farms and other innovative care environments for older people living with dementia: concept, mechanisms and impact on residents

Abstract

Key goals of the dementia care environment focus on increasing autonomy, supporting independence and trying to enable the own lifestyle of older people living with dementia for as long as possible. To meet these goals, innovative, small-scale and homelike care environments have been developed across the world that have radically changed of the physical, social and organizational aspects. This symposium presents examples of these facilities in the Netherlands (Green Care Farms) and Germany (Shared Housing Arrangements) for people living with dementia. These presentations cover the whole spectrum of long-term care from day-care services, assisted living facilities and nursing home care. It focuses on the concepts and their impact on older people living with dementia. Furthermore, it presents an overview of other innovative long-term care environments across the world, aiming to provide care for older people living with dementia. The first presentation will highlight working mechanisms of green care farms as alternative to nursing homes in the Netherlands and how these mechanisms can be transferred to other regular care settings. The second presentation focuses on the potential of green care farming as a daycare service for older people living with dementia from ethnic minority backgrounds. The third presentation discusses shared housing arrangements in Germany and has investigated the impact of a complex care intervention to reduce the number of hospital admissions for people living with dementia in these facilities. The final presentation provides an overview of international concepts of innovative care environments for older people living with dementia and gives insights in their characteristics.