Life Skill Stations
Written by: Hannah Holbrook
Designing for senior living facilities poses a series of challenges that even the most seasoned designers have to navigate through, and sometimes, it requires us to create solutions to problems beyond the realms of design. Luckily, we have a President who has over 30 years of experience to show us the ropes, my mother, Laurie Holbrook.
The memory care division of the building is an even more special area that requires a broader eye to design the space in an equally aesthetically pleasing and functional application. It is difficult in and of itself to make a “locked down” building not feel institutional - to pick the right furniture that is residential but adheres to codes, while durable enough to withstand the use that it will endure.
Furthermore, with the limited space of this area, it’s important to create small niches of activity stations to make the residents not feel trapped, and to hopefully inspire positive memories and release neurotransmitters in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine.
We call these Life Skill Stations. These stations embody happy periods or activities in the residents life and serve as a space where the residents can re-enact those tasks. The most popular one we create is the nursey. Here, we have a crib, changing station, nursery books, stuffed animals, and realistic baby dolls for the residents to cuddle and coon.
Another popular station we create is the gardening station. Here we have a garden table, faux flowers, plastic garden tools, and gardening books for the residents to enjoy.
Other stations we create are the art station, mechanic station, wedding station and laundry station. It’s important that no stations, or no part of the building for that matter, has anything that can harm the residents. This includes real tools (such as scissors or knives), glass, sharp objects, or anything that can entangle them.
Creating these stations is extremely fun for us to do and the best part is constantly evolving to make them better and to think of new ways to bring joy to these resident’s lives.