Culture & Lifestyle: Aging in Translation

In this episode we tackle the question of how culture and lifestyle influences operations, policy creation, and design for dementia environments. Barbra McLendon, Eloy van Hal, and Katie Swenson share a very wide breadth of experiences on this topic, and our discussions range from highly complex public policy challenges to defining intrinsic notions of ‘home’.

Our first interview is with Barbra McLendon is Director of Public Policy at Alzheimer’s Los Angeles, a non-profit organization serving the Los Angeles area for over 40 years. The organization aims to improve the lives of local families affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia by increasing awareness, delivering effective programs and services, providing compassionate support, and advocating for quality care and a cure.

Then, we speak with Eloy van Hal who is director of Van Hal Advisors and senior managing advisor in the Be The Hogeweyk Care Concept Advisory team of the Vivium Care Group. Eloy managed several nursing homes and assisted living communities over more than 20 years before managing the former nursing home of Hogewey and eventually developing and co-founding the Hogeweyk (the Hogewey dementia village). He was instrumental in its design, construction, implementation and maintaining and improving the concept. Eloy managed the Hogeweyk from 2008 to 2015, and now works to share his knowledge and experience with others across the world by providing strategic and operational advisory service to clients in the public and private sectors.

Our last conversations is with Katie Swenson, who is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator. She is a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group, an international non-profit architecture firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Before joining MASS in early 2020, Swenson was vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led the Rose Fellowship program, recruiting and mentoring 85 fellows who are the next generation of leaders in architecture and community development. Previously, Katie served as a fellow with the Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, VA and founded the Charlottesville Community Design Center.

Continue the conversation in our LinkedIn group Shaping Dementia Environments:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9044567/

Learn more about Perkins Eastman insights:

https://www.perkinseastman.com/white-papers/