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There is increasing interest in the UK in developing environments that support people who are neurodiverse. This paper aims to report on a project to develop a cognitively supportive environmental assessment tool to improve the design of health centres, where the majority of National Health Service consultations take place, for all users, including people living with dementia and those who are neurodiverse.

A three-stage process was used: a literature review; the development of a matrix of key design features for people living with dementia, autism and other neurodiverse conditions; and the development of an environmental assessment tool and guide for users, which included easy-to-read versions to maximise service user involvement.

The overarching concepts of dementia-friendly design can be adapted to create designs for everyone, including those who are neurodiverse.

There is a paucity of research in environmental design for primary care from the patient’s perspective, and, more generally, further research on design for adults with learning disabilities and autism is needed.

The tools are free to download. With adaptation, they have potential applicability across health and care settings.

This project has confirmed that the principles of dementia-friendly design are applicable, with modifications, to a wider group of neurodiverse people. Critically, each person’s response to sensory stimuli is individual rather than determined by their condition.

This paper aims to describe a literature review and online survey to explore the provisions and support for people living with dementia in housing with care (HwC) settings within England.

An initial scoping literature review was conducted to synthesise the evidence relating to residents living with dementia in HwC settings and informed the development of an online survey distributed to HwC housing managers to explore the provisions, policies, procedures and support services relating to people living with dementia in HwC settings.

The findings provided a picture of HwC settings in England and the residents, particularly those living with dementia, in terms of policies and procedures, reasons for moving into HwC, reasons for denying entry, reasons for leaving, positive outcomes, staff knowledge and training, environmental design, challenges and successes.

The survey responses were from a self-selected sample of HwC providers and scheme/village managers; thus, it may be the case that the settings involved were doing more to support residents living with dementia. It should also be appreciated that the responses were based on the perceptions of the individual staff members completing the survey, not those of the HwC residents.

This study presented a picture of the current state of provisions and support for people with dementia within HwC settings in England, providing an essential platform from which to undertake targeted research to help shape future provision and enabling housing providers to assess their current schemes within the wider context.

This paper aims to examine housing need for older people and people with dementia, with reference to Scotland. This paper also examines policy responses and tensions arising from such need and looks critically at the evidence of care needs and what older people want in relation to later life conditions, including dementia.

Taking the Being Home: Housing and Dementia in Scotland report (2017) as a baseline descriptor, the authors have collated evidence from a range of sources to help them examine what has changed in terms of policy, practice and population ageing. Set against this backdrop, using desk-based analytical methods, the authors interrogate existing planning processes and systems in Scotland.

Scottish Spatial Planning has a policy blindness on the overwhelming evidence of the housing needs derived from an ageing population. Policy focus is geared towards the amount of housing supplied, rather than appropriate types of housing, leaving older people with little choice of suitable accommodation. A key area to improve is in establishing greater co-operation and policy synthesis between health, social, housing and planning functions. Broad policy ambition must be transferred into detailed reality for older people and people with dementia to benefit.

The integrated approach and in-depth analysis, linked to planning policy and housing need, is highly original and much needed.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a scoping review of the advantages and challenges of extra care housing (ECH) provision in the UK for people living with dementia. Access to suitable housing is a fundamental right for people living with dementia and can enable people to live as well as possible (Twyford and Porteus, 2021). Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different models of housing with care has been identified as a research priority by people living with dementia (Barrett et al., 2016) but “there is no current consensus on the best model of specialist housing for people with dementia” (Twyford and Porteus, 2021, p. 29).

This scoping review identifies the advantages and disadvantages of living in ECH for people with dementia. It is the preliminary stage of a study that seeks to develop knowledge about different models of ECH for people living with dementia (Atkinson et al., 2021).

Advantages include the promotion of independence, flexible staffing, safety and security, social inclusion, physical design and integrated service provision. Disadvantages include barriers to entry, tensions between independence and support, managing advanced dementia, resourcing flexible care, managing social exclusion, loneliness and stigma and a disabling environment.

The scoping review reinforces the need for further research into different models of ECH provision in the UK for people living with dementia. The review provides insight that is of benefit to all stakeholders involved in ECH and contributes to the development of evidence-based provision called for in the recent All Party Parliamentary Group inquiry (Twyford and Porteus, 2021).

This scoping review summarises the current position for people living with dementia in ECH.

The concept of aging-in-place has gained notable significance in the last decade due to a dramatic demographic shift in global population dynamics that have considerably affected the ability of societies to adequately cater for their aging population. This paper examines some of the barriers to aging-in-place in the context of health needs, housing design and the role of retrofitting/smart home technologies in overcoming these barriers.

Using a narrative literature review approach, the authors undertook a comprehensive search of recent relevant literature focusing on five core thematic areas: health and aging, aging in place, barriers to aging in place, retrofitting and smart home technologies for successful aging in place. The authors entered appropriate keywords into interdisciplinary research databases and synthesized a coherent narrative discussing the thematic areas using the data extracted from the literature search.

There is a bidirectional relationship between aging and the home environment. Barriers to aging-in-place are mainly related to progressive decline in health, which alters the environmental needs of individuals. Appropriate building designs can significantly facilitate aging-in-place. The authors, therefore, highlight the role of retrofitting and smart home technologies as practical solutions to the challenges of the aging-in-place.

Forward planning in building design is essential to guarantee that the home environment is well adapted for the challenges of aging-in-place while also promoting healthy aging.

The paper shows the relationship between aging and the home environment and how building design considerations could enhance healthy aging-in-place.

Persons living with dementia (PLWD) constitute a global epidemic of more than 50 million people around the world, and tens of millions more serve as their caregivers. Public libraries must learn to assist, support, and sustain those with dementia in their communities. The good news is that some of the most powerful non-pharmacological interventions for PLWD – healthy lifestyle choices, lifelong learning for mental stimulation, and the stimulation and support of social networks – all are embedded in public libraries’ core mission. Thus, library services for the underserved population of PLWD and their caregivers can make a huge collective impact toward sustainable communities, social justice, and strong institutions.

Libraries can provide this help through dementia-friendly customer service and through programming that both supports individuals and develops and strengthens social relationships. Libraries can further promote good health and well-being, both through information resources and with targeted older adult programming. We can simultaneously contribute to social justice, mitigating the stigma and the deleterious effects of dementia which can be worse within minority communities. The positive impact of library dementia services can even be magnified through collective impact when different institutions within a community work together toward dementia-friendly standards.

This reflective chapter details the operation of library services for PLWD and their caregivers, providing concrete examples of dementia-friendly customer service, collection development, information and reference services, and a wide variety of older adult programming. Together, these library dementia services can create a powerful and positive impact through lifelong learning, mental stimulation, and social connections.