Advancing home-like environments for memory care residents within nursing homes

Abstract Objective: This article reports on 5 specialized memory care environments within nursing homes in Canada through the theory of affordances with the aim of understanding the layered implications of affordances on memory care residents by curating objects within and configuring or designing spatial environments. Methods: A spatial/object-centric approach was taken by using a detailed analysis framework based on a robust interpretation of the theory of affordances and well-known elements, principles, and physical/construction properties of interior and spatial design. A web content analysis method, using hundreds of photographs, drawings, and textual information belonging to 5 nursing homes posted on websites and on social media, was used. Results: The results include a detailed analysis framework informed by affordance theory and 3 themes that reveal details about the designed environments. The 3 themes are: (1) how contextual factors of affordances of place and care played out, (2) how physical, cultural, and semantic affordances aided or detracted from memory care, and (3) how home-like environments with public, semiprivate, and private spaces involved multiple affordances and constraints that provided multisensory clues towards supporting and/or limiting memory care residents’ possible actions. Conclusions: We conclude that although affordances can open a range of possible actions, they are not ideal for configuring or designing home-like environments, and it is necessary for memory care residents to be presented with constraints that limit alternatives and misaffordances. This article provides evidence about how affordances and constraints are (and could be) intentionally embedded in home-like memory care environments in nursing homes.