Do you have any residents over 55 who can take part in this housing survey?

The University of Stirling’s Designing Homes for Cognitive Ageing research project want to understand how well the houses in the UK support healthy cognitive ageing and dementia. To assist, if you have any residents aged 55 or over living in mainstream and specialist housing, they are invited to take part in an online survey that will take them through different rooms and spaces within the home, checking features and areas that are important and supportive of cognitive ageing.

While many of us think about making changes to our home to meet our physical needs, it’s common for people to overlook the simple and practical changes that can make a home more supportive for someone who is living with cognitive change. Making your home more age-friendly can include making small design tweaks to improve contrast, lighting, and use of patterns, as well as larger projects like installing see through cupboard doors. These kinds of changes can help us gradually transform our homes into spaces that work well for us as we get older, whether we’re living with dementia or not.

Taking part in this survey will help the DesHCA team develop a real insight into how dementia-friendly homes in the UK are or not. Your residents’ responses, along with data from other parts of the project, will be used to create practical resources and guidance to design new homes that are dementia-friendly, as well as help people improve their current homes to better support them as they age - especially if they're living with dementia. These will be shared via the Housing LIN in future.