Environments for Aging - Fall 2017 - 33

Setting the stage

Leaders of the design firm behind the top-winning project in EFA's first design competition in
1997 share details on how they approached the project then and ways it represents a shift in
dementia care since By J. David Hoglund and Daniel J. Cinelli

ntegrace Copper Ridge opened its doors
in Sykesville, Md., in July 1994, and the
community quickly garnered recognition
as the first new facility in the country designed
specifically to address the continuum of care
needs of people with Alzheimer's and related
dementias. Copper Ridge challenged the existing status quo at the time, with the goal of supporting memory care in a less institutional, less
restrictive environment than more traditional
settings. In 1997, the effort earned our project
team at Perkins Eastman a Best in Show award
in the design competition that was the basis for
the very first issue of Design magazine-what
would evolve into today's annual Design Showcase in Environments for Aging.
Looking back on our team's original design,
from the site schematics and building floor
plan to the interior furnishings, Copper Ridge
represented a milestone within the architecture
and design arena. Designing for the continuum
of care-whereby residents can remain in a
supportive and familiar setting as their symptoms become more pronounced-requires an
understanding of wellness. And as architects,

Top: Individual households at Copper Ridge offer
intimate and safe environments for residents to age
in place. One key to achieving this model of care was
the crafting of landscaped courtyards and walking
paths that promote socialization and an active
lifestyle, as seen in this image from 1997. Above: A
person-centered approach used in the orignal design
was supported through private rooms that are part of
households within the larger community.

we define wellness in terms of how the physical environment can be crafted in ways that
directly support a person's well-being-physical, socio-emotional, and intellectual elements,
otherwise known as whole-person wellness.
Copper Ridge was an early adopter of
this idea and continues to support it. But
the senior care industry's understanding of
memory care has grown substantially in the
past 20 years, and with it so have approaches
to research, treatment, and design. Copper
Ridge is an example of how this evolution has
taken shape and now more fully supports a
whole-person approach.
"Our memory care model did work for a while,"
says Cindy Yingling, vice president of neurocognitive operations at Integrace. "But then we
began to notice a greater need for more comprehensive wellness services." The catalyst for this
was that leadership realized memory is only one
cognitive function, and thus, the term "memory
care" was too limiting when considering the full
scope of what it was setting out to do for residents. "We have taken this leap into transforming
our services based on neurocognitive research.
It's what we refer to as the 'integrated solution'
for neurocognitive support," she says.
For example, Yingling notes that some who
suffer from Alzheimer's will initially show no
symptoms of memory loss and, further, that
memory and learning function represent only
one neurocognitive domain; the others include
language, perceptual and motor functions,
social cognition, complex attention, and executive functions. So the care model in place today
addresses all of these domains and neurocognitive impairments and not just memory loss.
Copper Ridge's expanded model now
features a residential living continuum with
126 suites in both assisted living and skilled
nursing, a neurocognitive diagnostic clinic,
and an adult day and night care program, all
supported through research and education.
By forging this integrated solution for
treating neurocognitive impairments in a
Fall 2017 * EFAmagazine.com

http://www.EFAmagazine.com

Environments for Aging - Fall 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Environments for Aging - Fall 2017