Improved access to outdoor spaces could reduce high depression rates in care homes

With nearly half of UK care home residents now having some form of depression, a new study has shown that it is not necessarily the poor design of care homes that has an adverse impact on the mental health of its residents, but rather inadequate access to outdoor spaces.

The study has been considering the effect that the design of care homes has on residents.

The lead author of the study, Dr Rachel Potter from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick said:

“Residents may appear to have access to outdoor space but are prevented from using the outdoor space independently due to poor physical or cognitive function, or need the permission of staff to use the outdoors, reasons that may negatively affect residents’ perception of autonomy and consequently their mood.

“The findings of the study suggest that interventions that increase access to outdoor spaces could positively affect depressive symptoms in older people”.

The paper, entitled “The Impact of the Physical Environment on Depressive Symptoms of Older Residents Living in Care Homes: A Mixed Methods Study”, appears in the journal, The Gerontologist, and contains new research encompassing the physical environment of 50 care homes in Coventry and Warwickshire, and northeast London.

The aim of the research group was to find any association with the depressive symptoms of 510 residents in the homes.

In recent years there has been growing interest in the role of the physical environment on health, with an early study finding that hospital patients staying in rooms overlooking a rural area had shorter hospital stays.

Another study showed that brighter lighting reduced depressive symptoms in residents in assisted living facilities in the Netherlands.

The study by the University of Warwick, however, concluded that the quality of design for indoor and outdoor spaces is of secondary concern for residents of care homes, who were more concerned with easily accessible outdoor spaces in which they can relax and communicate with their peers.

Many of the reasons for the obstruction of outdoor space were varied, including, procedural, staffing and physical barriers.

There were also interviews carried out with a handful of residents living in these care homes to find out what individual residents really thought about the design of the home they lived in.

Surprise results showed that the design of care homes was not associated with depressive symptoms.

Dr Rebecca Cain, one of the researchers working on the paper at the University of Warwick, said:

“Residents expressed little interest in the décor of the care homes; and appreciated features of the care home that increased opportunity for social interaction and promoted independence and function”.