How To Design A Dementia-Friendly Office (Because Increasingly Staff Will Need It)

Landlords and developers are growing familiar with the idea that the workplace must be inclusive. That means finding space for the young and the old, for extroverts and introverts, women and men and for people with disabilities. But few have got to grips with the idea of the dementia-friendly workspace.

Now one of the UK's leading dementia charities is putting long-standing advice into practise by creating their own dementia-friendly office.

Overbury has been selected to deliver the new 7K SF Birmingham office for the Alzheimer's Society. The office in Edgbaston will include specially selected colours and furnishings that are dementia friendly.

Design features to facilitate neurodiversity in the workplace include the use of paint colours chosen from a palette specifically for people affected by dementia, and furniture selected for comfort and accessibility. Patterns for carpets and fabrics within the office have been specially selected to be dementia friendly. Overbury will create social spaces to welcome visitors, whilst central focal points within the office space will allow service users to navigate easily.

Overbury’s design has been influenced by people affected by dementia, as well as academics from the University of Stirling, who were consulted as part of specially convened focus groups.

The office space will be used to deliver the Alzheimer’s Society’s new service, called Dementia Connect, which provides a first point of contact for people affected by dementia and their families. Work has started on the new facility and it is expected to be completed by late July.

“The Alzheimer’s Society wants to recruit the best people for the new roles in this facility so we designed a workplace which is not only functional but attractive to their current and future staff," Overbury Office Design Account Manager Michele Clifton said.

“Consistency, comfort and wellness were key points we considered during the design process as we seek to create a facility that is not only inviting, but also boosts the wellbeing of all users. We’ve incorporated communal breakout and refreshment areas which have been carefully designed to have a warm, homely feel, which is really important for office workers.”

The Alzheimer’s Society has published a design guide to help others create dementia-friendly workspace.

There are currently 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK of whom 45,000 are under the age of 65. The Society says the UK total is set to rise to 1 million by 2025.

"It is therefore vitally important for organisations to consider the role they can play to support their staff and customers who are affected by dementia. Research indicates that this will be beneficial to the organisation for a number of reasons — most notably that staff will be able to perform to their maximum potential for longer. Employers are not only doing the right thing, but they are ensuring their organisation is more productive," the document said.