Psychosocially Supportive Design Of Community Care Facilities For The Elderly

In recent years,the community service facilities for the elderly in China have been developed and improved rapidly in physical environmental aspect,but the spiritual needs of the elderly are still not paid enough attention to.Meanwhile negative emotions and the lack of social support will threaten the health of the elderly,the research on the physical environment concerning the social psychology of the elderly is still insufficient at present.The purpose of this paper is to explore the architectural and environmental design of community care facilities for the elderly from the perspective of psychosocially support.First of all,this research combs the theory related to the environment and psychosocially support of the elderly through literature research,based on the theory of salutogenesis,social ecological theory,supportive design,competence-press model,social support theory.Secondly,by means of space observation,behavior observation and semi-structured interview,a field survey was conducted on the community care facilities for the elderly in Shanghai,Chengdu,Xi’an and Harbin,behavioral observation scale was used to analyze the data of behavioral activity and emotional level,and the results of spatial observation and interview were used to analyze the related environmental problems.Psychosocially supportive environment model of community care facilities for the elderly,which is based on theoretical and empirical foundations,specifically covers three aspects: coherence support,social support and positive stimulus support,it is expected to promote the elderly’s sense of mental consistency,reduce environmental stress and promote their health and well-being through independent activities,social interaction and positive emotions.Secondly,the study extracted the relevant factors of environmental design from coherence support,social support and positive stimulus support,and proposed design strategies.The strategy of coherence supporting design is mainly discussed from the following aspects: the space layout that can be intelligible,the decorative equipment that can be controlling and the furniture items that can maintain the continuity,furthermore,the key design strategies such as open plan,high accessibility layout and supporting detail facilities are proposed.The design strategy of social support is discussed from three aspects: the spatial layout of enhancing social opportunities,furniture and equipment to stimulate interactive interests,and the overall environment to strengthen community connections,furthermore,the main points such as diversification of public activity places,corridor compounding are put forward.The design strategies of positive stimulation support are further analyzed from two aspects: the sensory environment that guides positive emotions,and the natural connection environment that creates a healing atmosphere,the key strategies such as the introduction of natural light,natural materials,the physical accessibility of natural elements,and the sensory connection of natural elements are put forward.This research links psychosocial support with community care facilities for the elderly from the perspective of space environment.It is expected that the model and strategy results of psychosocially supportive space environment design can provide effective environment design tools and methods for the newly-built or reconstructed community caring facilities for the elderly.