Rising construction costs and other complications stemming from political upheaval and COVID-19 in Peru remain barriers to the start of construction in 2022. Please click here to contribute to this project.
DEMENTIA AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
The Casa Hogar Santa Rosa de Lima is a facility where 11 nurses and other staff care for 18 abandoned aging adults with dementia and other cognitive and physical impairments who would otherwise face homelessness in Iquitos, Peru. While the Casa Hogar does provide shelter to those who live there, many other local seniors need these services. The house itself is overcrowded and lacks physical accessibility, functional spaces for workers, and other qualities that are essential to quality dementia care such as therapeutic interior and green spaces, natural lighting and ventilation, and wayfinding features. These environmental limitations are linked to injuries, lack of independence, exacerbation of dementia symptoms, and lower quality of life amongst residents and on-site workers. The Dementia and the Built Environment project engages evidence-based and participatory design strategies to renovate the Casa Hogar to improve the well-being of residents and workers and to double the capacity of the Casa Hogar. The project team is measuring the impact of the renovation on residents and workers to help inform design guidelines for future facilities in the Urban Amazonian context.
PARTNERS
Traction; Centro de Investigaciones Tecnologicas, Biomedicas y Medioambientales (CITBM); University of Washington Departments of Global Health, Nursing, Neurology, Environmental and Occupational Health, Landscape Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana; NIH Fogarty Fellows Program; Municipality of Maynas
