Residents' Wayfinding Challenges and Environmental Interventions in a Care Home

Abstract This study evaluated the role of the built environment on residents’ wayfinding behaviours at Louis Brier Home in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The goal of this study was to explore baseline mobility challenges for the residents traveling between their bedrooms and social spaces. In response to this, low-cost environmental interventions were proposed and implemented to support safe and independent wayfinding for the residents. The project consisted of three phases. First phase involved a mixed methods approach using behavior mapping and spatial observations of the residents interacting with their physical environment, combined with one focus group with the staff members. In the second phase, researchers presented actionable environmental interventions for the care home administration to consider and implement. The final phase involved post-implementation behaviour mapping, spatial observations and a focus group session. The implemented environmental interventions influenced in improved resident wayfinding and orientation in the long-term care home.


THE ROLE OF INTERGENERATIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD RELATIONS FOR PRECARIOUS AGING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN GERMANY Anna Wanka, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the immediate living environment has significantly gained importance -particularly for people framed as 'risk-groups', such as older adults.Effects of contact restrictions to contain the spread of the virus have affected inequalities, uncertainties and loneliness in later life differently depending on the intergenerational relations, informal infrastructures of provisioning and networks of solidarity given in a certain neighborhood.The paper presents findings from a recent mixed-methods study in Frankfurt, Germany, combining a quantitative survey (n=1.000) with a longitudinal qualitative study (n=60).Results show how intergenerational neighborhood relations can play a crucial role in mediating risks of pandemic precariousness in later life, but also how older adults themselves significantly contributing to neighborhood networks of provisioning.Strengthening such very local relations is key to protecting all age groups from the effects of crises beyond the pandemic, and, in conclusion, ways to do so are being discussed.

RESIDENTS' WAYFINDING CHALLENGES AND ENVIRONMENTAL INTERVENTIONS IN A CARE HOME
Shelby Elkes, and Habib Chaudhury, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada This study evaluated the role of the built environment on residents' wayfinding behaviours at Louis Brier Home in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.The goal of this study was to explore baseline mobility challenges for the residents traveling between their bedrooms and social spaces.In response to this, low-cost environmental interventions were proposed and implemented to support safe and independent wayfinding for the residents.The project consisted of three phases.First phase involved a mixed methods approach using behavior mapping and spatial observations of the residents interacting with their physical environment, combined with one focus group with the staff members.In the second phase, researchers presented actionable environmental interventions for the care home administration to consider and implement.The final phase involved post-implementation behaviour mapping, spatial observations and a focus group session.The implemented environmental interventions influenced in improved resident wayfinding and orientation in the long-term care home.

DOING TIME: EXPERIENCES OF CARE HOME RESIDENTS IN GERMANY DURING THE EARLY PHASE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Miranda Leontowitsch, 1 Frank Oswald, 2 Arthur Schall, 3 and Johannes Pantel, 3 1.Goethe University Frankfurt,Frankfurt / Main,Hessen,Germany,2. Goethe University Frankfurt,Frankfurt am Main,Hessen,Germany,3. Goethe University Frankfurt,Frankfurt,Hessen,Germany Residents of care homes across the globe are affected by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 as they have been identified as a high-risk group and because they experienced strict social isolation regulations during the first wave of the pandemic.Social isolation of frail older people is strongly associated with negative health outcomes.The aim of this research project was to investigate how residents in care homes experienced social isolation during the first phases of contact ban in Germany.This paper draws on structured interview data collected from 22 residents in two care homes during early June 2020 in Frankfurt/Main.The findings show that their experiences were shaped by three factors: care home staffs' approach to handling the contact ban; biographical sense of resilience; and a hierarchy of life issues.The findings highlight the importance of locally specific response mechanisms in care homes, and the need to contextualize residents' experiences.

CHARACTERIZATION OF A MOUSE MODEL OF INDUCIBLE FRAILTY: THE HUMANIZED IL-6 MOUSE
Lolita Nidadavolu, 1 Peter M. Abadir, 2 Jeremy Walston, 2 Anne Le, 1 Gayane Yenokyan, 3 Liliana Florea, 1 Corina Antonescu, 1 and D. Brian Foster, 1 1.Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 2. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,Baltimore,Maryland,United States,3. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,Baltimore,Maryland,United States The cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) has pleiotropic effects in aging and is elevated in frail older adults.We have developed a conditional mouse model to better characterize the








