Environments for Ageing and Dementia Design Assessment Toolkit by the DSDC

At de Fiddes we enjoy reading latest research and discussing best practice in dementia design. We often sit down for webinars and anyone who has seen our body of work knows that we attend more than a couple of conferences. So we were very excited when the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) recently launched the ‘Environments for Ageing and Dementia Design Assessment Toolkit.’ (EADDAT) This range of resources provides evidence based research and checklists for families and businesses to use to make places more accessible to an ageing population, and those living with dementia. The toolkit is a great and accessible way for people to understand Dementia and help create supportive environments for residents and loved ones.

The first introductory level is Aware which comprises of 6 in depth and research backed fundamentals when designing for ageing and dementia.
These are: 

1: promote ability

2: maintain independence and identity 

3: enable care for carers 

4: be familiar 

5: maintain interactions with others 

6: accommodating preferences

Along with a handy detailed checklist, case studies and best practice examples. The first tool also gives an overview on dementia and how to use the tool.  Being hot off the press, we 100% recommend you check it out!

News from the Team:
The de Fiddes team had an action packed filled month. We waved off Kat to her Scottish vacation and Mollie to her island retreat. We admired the Wedding PowerPoint Deb made for her niece, swooned over images of Vanessa’s new grandchild. Christine and Deb donned their hard hats for site visits and Christine and Sam dodged the hail whilst doing an audit.  Who say’s design work isn’t dangerous at times! 

With this year rapidly progressing we can’t wait to see what October has in store.  Certainly some better weather!