Traumas can take many forms, including acute, chronic, complex, and system induced. They can have lasting adverse effects on someone’s functioning as well as their mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Living with or caring for an individual with a chronic illness, including dementia, is often traumatic. This can be even more complicated by the confounding stressors associated with normal aging, such as loss of independence, reduced financial resources, and physical decline.
Architects and designers are strategically positioned to assist in the discovery of pathways to resilience through appropriate built environment interventions utilizing trauma-informed design (TiD) principles. Trauma-informed approaches promote safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, and empowerment, voice, and choice. They also consider the impact of culture, race, history, and gender on an individual’s experiences (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, 2014).
As communities evaluate innovative solutions for aging in place and delivery of care, it is valuable to build bridges to relevant research in the field of trauma-informed care and design. This knowledge can serve to inform our approaches to our aging adults as well as their caregivers.
Sponsored by the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures, this discussion features insight from licensed NYS interior designer Christine Foster along with trauma-informed care specialist Christine Cowart and Janet Roche, co-founders of the Trauma-informed Design Society.
