유니버설 디자인 원리에 따른 부산시 노인전문요양시설 평가

Abstract

Recently, as an advanced age of people have increased in numbers, a need for skilled nursing facilities have increased. Through this increase of advanced age people, there has been a large increase in percentage of elderly with dementia. The current skilled nursing facilities in Busan are environmentally not compatible for elderly with dementia. Therefore, an improvement to these skilled nursing facilities is needed. In order for an improvement to take place, a systematic assessment should be done. Through this study of skilled nursing facilities, analysis of every aspect of these nursing facilities can be made with the universal design concept in mind. This study will mainly take place in Busan where as of the year 2006, there has been 7 different skilled nursing facilities registered in the Human Health Services department. For this study, with the analyzation of many books, the analyzation of the different kinds of floor plans, and also by going to the different skilled nursing facilities, an accurate assessment of the nursing facilities has been made. Using the Universal Design principle, 6 different concepts have been concluded. With the examination and analyzation of the basic principles of the Universal Design in the different literatures, a basic concept for an accurate assessment of the skilled nursing facilities has been made. The Universal Design principle has provided 6 different concepts which are Supportiveness, Flexibility, Accessibility, Safety, Perception, and Amenity. Using these different concepts, the understanding of a more detailed assessment of the skilled nursing facilities in Busan has been concluded. The summarization of the different assessment conclusions are as follows: First, according to the total analysis of the different concepts, the 7 registered skilled nursing facilities have been shown to be below average. The highest-to-lowest assessment according to the 6 different concepts is as follows: Accessibility, Amenity, Safety, Supportiveness, Perception, Flexibility. Second, according to the analysis of the different spaces, the skilled nursing facilities each consisted of an entrance, a core, a corridor, a living room, a wandering pathway, a rest room, a public bath room, a dining hall, a multi-purpose room, a physio-therapy room, and a social room. Upon dividing the skilled nursing facilities into 11 different spaces, the different spaces were analyzed according to the 6 different concepts from the Universal Design Principle. In conclusion, the 7 registered nursing facilities in Busan, each had different personalities and according to their different personalities, each had different spatial arrangements. Overall, the 7 facilities had high Accessibility, low Flexibility, and Perception. Third, there are several different methods to improve these areas that have shown to be low such as Perception and Flexibility. In order to improve Perception, a direction understanding and way-finding etc for the elderly with dementia is needed, such as making the different signs around the nursing facilities more compatible with the elderly. Also, to make each space inside and around the facility more distinguishable, putting different finishing materials on the floor of each room can also help the elderly with dementia recognize which room they are in. Also, improving perception of the elderly with dementia can be done by placing glass windows and doors around the facility so that they can perceive the different changes in weather environment and they can also perceive the difference in seasons just by looking out the window. In order to improve Flexibility, personal adaptability for the different spaces provided at the nursing facility should be made compatible with the elderly. Also, personal treatment and rehabilitation environment must be made to be compatible with the elderly at the nursing facilities. Not only is it important to distinguish between mild dementia or serious dementia as it is done now, but also it is important to distinguish between the cause and effect of each dementia patient. This is important to minimize the effect of friction among the different patients. In conclusion, through this study, the total factors of the skilled nursing facilities has been analyzed through the 6 different concepts extracted from the Universal Design Principle. An understanding and analyzation of need for the skilled nursing facilities has become known. If we improve the factors of need for the skilled nursing facilities in this way, a better environment for the elderly with dementia is ultimately guaranteed.