We were involved in this ground breaking dementia project on wards 23 and 29 at Bradford Royal Infirmary that went on to win a nationally recognised award for healthcare interior design. We worked in partnership with Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Andy Edwards Design on a ground-breaking £450,000-plus healthcare project, the largest of its kind in England, at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI). The project involved the redevelopment of Wards 23 and 29 to improve the hospital environment for acute elderly care patients living with dementia. The six-month refurbishment scheme attracted funding of £50,000 from The King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) programme. The project brief was to look at how design and artwork could influence patient behaviour and improve the environment for both patients and staff.
In part, the objectives of influencing patient behaviour and improving the environment were achieved by providing special memory boxes by each patient’s bed, into which they place a personal object they can easily recognise and remember. It has a double function: it helps patients find their way back to their beds and it acts as an aid to nostalgia by helping them recall and reminisce about their past.
In addition, oversized Kodak-style slide frames, backlit with LED lighting, feature interchangeable images provided by The Yorkshire Film Archive, based at York University. They include bygone scenes of Bradford and Yorkshire folk, such as families at the seaside, to foster happy memories.
These were supplemented with wall-mounted image boards, also interchangeable and purpose-designed to enhance local recognition and awareness. The images came from entrants in a Yorkshire-themed photographic competition run by BRI.
Immediate improvements were achieved including reduced rates of falls, less agitation among patients and reduced complaints from relatives. The project later went on to win a nationally recognised industry award for interior design.
Credit: Product concepts by Andy Edwards Design-Leeds
