Developing inclusive design standards (UK) enabling future home adaptations to support people with dementia

Purpose: This PhD research aims to address the lack of a building standard for mainstream housing in designing for dementia in the UK. The research is 1) Exploring this gap in guidance by investigating the UK Building Regulations Part M: Access to and Use of Buildings and its Approved Document M (Study 1), 2) Collating design principles and evidence(s) researched and reviewed in recent studies, and finally, 3) Developing a set of inclusive design standards for new-build homes in the UK, enabling future home adaptations to support people with dementia (PwD). The working title for the standards is ‘Inclusive Design for Dementia Standards (IDDS).’

Methods: Data were collected following a systematic literature review which informed semi-structured interviews and online questionnaires across four studies. Participants were recruited through qualitative (purposive and snowball) sampling. The responses were examined using thematic and framework analysis in NVivo (qualitative analysis software).

Results: Current industry views identified provisions of home design and adaptations promoting independence that should be included in the IDDS to improve provisions for PwD. The draft standard was iteratively reviewed and developed with IDDS Version 2.0 as the final output.

Conclusion: There is a distinct lack of information available in the design of mainstream housing that consider dementia. More research is needed to improve the future-proofing quality of the UK housing stock and support the ageing population to live well independently. This research involved people ageing in place, in homes of differing ages and characteristics, to investigate adaptions and to discuss plans, if any, for future adaptation(s).