認知症グループホームにおける居室表記のニーズと諸元の検討

<p> In recent years, the number of the elderly with dementia has increased as society ages with a low birthrate in Japan. The current therapy method for dementia is a combination of pharmacological therapy and non-pharmacological therapy. One of form of non-pharmacological therapy is to support independent living by displaying signs identifying residents’ rooms (residents’ room signs) for the elderly who have orientation disorder, which is a symptom of dementia. Although this method is widely used in the care of the elderly with dementia, the conditions for residents’ room signs that provide the effect of support for independent living of people with dementia have not been systematically organized. The objective of this study to build an environment with non-pharmacological therapeutic effects by organizing the needs of personnel in group homes for the elderly with dementia concerning residents’ room signs, and the elements of the residents’ room signs displayed by personnel.</p><p> Initially, we conducted a “Survey for Understanding the Condition and Needs of Display” covering 540 group homes for the elderly with dementia in Tokyo. As a result, it was found that the purpose of staff displaying residents’ room signs is to support residents with dementia to enable them to read signs and return to their own rooms by themselves. Therefore, it is vital that the residents’ room signs displayed can be understood by residents.</p><p> Next, we conducted a “Fact-finding Survey for Understanding the Elements” covering 8 group homes for the elderly with dementia in Tokyo. As a result, we found the following as elements for planning residents’ room signs for the elderly with dementia.</p><p> 1. The content that is most widely used to guide people with dementia is the resident’s name. Conversely, it is highly probably that room numbers, decorations and residents’ personal items are not used for guiding residents.</p><p> 2. The appropriate text size for displaying residents’ names is a height of around 30 to 50 millimeters.</p><p> 3. The appropriate position of display of residents’ room signs is “on the wall near the door handle” that is easy to identify when a resident acts to open the door, or “on the door” to make it easy to identify which door the sign refers to.</p><p> 4. Although the appropriate display height is 1,200 to 1,400 millimeters from the floor, it is better to display the sign near the lower end of the appropriate range.</p><p> 5. The trend in selection of background color and text color in additional signs is for “black text on a white background” to be chosen most frequently, and combinations of other colors are only used in a small number of cases. It is generally thought that a higher contrast between colors is easier to read, and similar results were found in this research.</p><p> 6. 38% of addition signs were written by hand and 62% were printed. Upon investigation of the fonts used in printed signs, no significant difference was found in the usage of fonts. It is possible that staff choose fonts based on the atmosphere rather than readability. There was a significant trend in the text size used in additional signs. For this reason, it is thought to be possible that sufficient readability for finding residents’ room is ensured regardless of differences in the font used.</p>