SAGE & J+J Release Senior Living White Paper

Dalton, GA, April 15, 2019-The Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE) is pleased to announce the release of its 2018 senior living post occupancy evaluation (POE) white paper.

Titled, “A SAGE Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the Cottage at Cypress Cove Memory and Dementia Care Households,” the 36-page white paper was funded with the support of J+J Flooring Group. It was released to SAGE members in December 2018, and is now available to anyone at no charge.

The 2018 SAGE POE was conducted last year by a multidisciplinary team of industry experts who spent a day onsite talking with staff, residents, family members, and the project designer.

“We chose this project because it had won several national design awards and is considered to be very innovative,” said Amy Carpenter, SAGE POE Team Leader. “It is among the first to use a tunable lighting system set to circadian rhythms, which has been shown to decrease agitation for those with dementia and improve sleep.”

And while there is no research evidence that the circadian lighting system in the Cottage at Cypress Cove memory and dementia care households is achieving those outcomes, staff and residents report that the lighting patterns seem to evoke a sense of calm and they have observed improved sleeping patterns.

Some of the other features the SAGE team found that work well are:

• Open plan layout of two households and resident rooms

• Sliding barn-style doors in resident rooms

• Amber night lighting in resident bathrooms

• Embedded discrete staff spaces

Others they found didn’t work so well are:

• Busy vertical tile pattern in resident bathroom shower camouflage controls

• Location of multi-purpose room not conducive to use

• Daytime circadian lighting clashes with wood-toned ceilings

• Changes in flooring materials, colors, and patterns in some areas can result in problems with depth perception.

To access the white paper, visit the SAGE website, www.sagefederation.org/SAGE-POE.