Environmental Geriatrics is the study and application of design principles to interiors and products to optimize the health, function, and well-being of older adults.
Clinicians can serve as a valuable resource to patients and their caregivers by providing them with advice and information on how to avoid excess disability through age-appropriate design. This 3D animated course, Environmental Geriatrics: Improving Function & Safety, is designed for medical students and primary care physicians as well as other healthcare professionals involved in the care of older patients.
- Experience virtually the effect of visual impairments, such as macular degeneration or glaucoma,
while interacting with the environment (e.g., descending stairs).
- Make a virtual home visit with an older patient who has reduced visual, hearing, mobility, and memory skills.
- Witness virtual patients unnecessarily struggling to accomplish daily tasks of living (e.g., bathing, eating,
transferring, ambulating, and taking medications).
- Observe patients encountering remediable environmental hazards that increase fall and burn risk, which
are not usually observable in practice.
- Identify specific assistive devices and environmental features that improve patients' ADL/IADL functioning while reducing injury risk.
