Reminiscence and nostalgia: designing feasible solutions for dementia care

The recreation of nostalgic feelings and memories has deep psychological implications for human beings, as it can increase self-esteem, social cohesion and connectedness. Applying this approach to dementia care may enable designers and researchers to reframe the use of memories to generate new methods of intervening on/in the interiors of care homes. It suggests a therapeutic use of nostalgia in the development of environmental solutions for dementia care units. Nostalgia and archetypical elements can be viewed as the active component of therapeutic success in reminiscence therapy in dementia care home design.