Design of a multisensory room for elderly people with neurodegenerative diseases

Multisensory stimulation in older persons is an effective practice that helps to train the mind and motor skills through elements that stimulate the senses of the people. The spaces where specialists work the sensory stimulation are the so-called multisensory rooms “Snoezelen”. Initially, the use of these rooms was mainly intended for children with learning difficulties, those that had difficulties to explore their environment. Recently, last few years, there have been realized investigations of the implementation of these rooms in persons who present cognitive deteriorations from moderate to severely and neurodegenerative pathology as Parkinson’s, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Bipolar disorder, among others. This project developed and implemented a Multisensory Black Room for older patients with neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive impairment. Different sensory stimulus were used to help the cognitive and functional sphere of older people. The implemented room has some elements: stairs of colors, star curtain, fiber optic shower, textures path, virtual reality glasses and sound therapy. We test our room with a group of older people, some of them form a control group without room stimulation and the others used the room during 3 months. The results indicate that it has been possible to reduce the aggressiveness pattern and to evolve in the functional part (fine-gross motor) and focus the attention that was dispersed in patients with neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive impairment in the early and late stages. In addition, patients improve the relationship with their social and personal environment, since the initiative of the room is to provide an atmosphere of wellness and relaxation, for the patient and the specialist.