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HealthbyDesign

HealthbyDesign  



︎  Health Through Connection:
Stress-Free Transportation System

If we create a positive traveling experience from the Brookdale Assisted Living Facility to wherever Maria wants to whenever she wants to, then there will be an increased frequency of travel out of the assisted living facility for both Maria and other residents, which will allow them to partake in more social and brain activities, and create a more age-friendly and brain-healthy community.
By Lauren Wojciechowski ︎ , Mostafa Salama ︎, Monique Lee  ︎




Who

Maria is a Honduran refugee, who immigrated to Michigan as a young girl. Her husband Omar passed away about a year ago, after which her three children encouraged her to move into an assisted living facility. She has been living there for three months.

Why

Maria is soft-spoken and rarely says what she is thinking. She enjoys taking care of her children, especially by cooking for them. When living at home she enjoyed gardening and found fulfillment in ensuring her home was clean and organized. Now at the assisted living facility, she mainly keeps to herself.

Growing older hasn’t been what Maria imagined. After the death of her husband and many close friends, she’s feeling lonelier than ever. She has Parkinson’s disease and experiences severe tremors and balance issues. Maria is looking for fulfilling ways to spend her time. She would like to connect more with folks her age and her children, but doesn’t want to seem like a bother.

The current best transportation option for Maria to travel around, such as to the Library from Brookdale would require a combination of walking and taking 2 different bus routes, both of which are difficult for Maria to navigate.

There are many places for Maria to go around the area, but she doesn’t feel like she can easily GET to them. At this point, Maria’s biggest challenge is overcoming her limited mobility, which is exacerbated by her Parkinson’s symptoms including tremors, imbalance, stiffness, and slowness of movement.

How

Creating a positive traveling experience between the Brookdale assisted living facility and nearby facilities by improving the existing infrastructure such as sidewalks, providing new infrastructure such as lighting, benches, and gathering spaces, as well as providing a digital assistant application for the ease of usage of the bus system.

To holistically understand the challenges Maria faces and the potential solutions that could be adopted, various research methodologies have been conducted. Firstly as primary research, simulation fieldwork has been conducted by mimicking an example of a day-in-the-life routine of Maria, traveling between the assisted living facility and the library through a combination of walking and taking the bus. This has been repeated both day and night to best understand the challenges Maria faces. As secondary research, literature reviews regarding the relationship between architecture and design with Parkinson’s Disease have been completed to acknowledge specific design efficacy measures.

What

Now.
 Improving the infrastructure at the bus stops themselves by adding benches, shelters, and lighting. The specific infrastructure added to the respective bus stops is dependent on the specific need or lack thereof. From our observations and research, adding these infrastructures to the existing bus stops could provide immediate assistance to Maria’s travels to and from the assisted living facility as these are proven to be design efficacy measures. Moreover, as this now solution focuses on the addition of small-scale furniture to the existing, it would be feasible to implement now.

Near.
Improving the infrastructure along walking points of the journey by the addition of infrastructure and by improving the existing. Incorporating handrails, lighting, crosswalks, and signages together with benches along the walking journey of Maria would enhance the walking experience, which could in turn be an incentive for Maria to go out more. This proposed near solution furthers the now solution, by providing enhanced infrastructures on a larger scale of the entire journey rather than just at the points of the bus stops. In addition, by leveling sidewalks, the inadequate sidewalk conditions would be revamped, which would be much safer for Maria as she would encounter balance issues due to her Parkinson’s disease.

Far: “The connector” - Improving the bus itself and the bus system.
The improved bus experience includes enhanced infrastructures such as facing seats to encourage social interactions, study handrails, and non-slip materials on floors, along with large signages. This will eventually allow Maria to be more independent, more social, and give her feelings of comfort and safety to manage her disease.

The bus system would be improved by allowing assisted living facility residents to notify bus drivers. This far solution requires the utilization of technology, as well as cooperation between the bus company and the Brookdale assisted living facility. Residents, such as Maria, would request a bus ride with the front desk staff at Brookdale. The staff member uses the phone app to notify the bus driver of the number of residents that would take the next bus and adds in any requests. The driver would then get an instant alert and can assist residents getting on and off the bus, waiting for them at a stop, dropping them closer to their stop, or any other needed services.


Visualizations of the Now, Near, and Far approach


So What

The current infrastructure for commuting between the assisted living facility and the nearby facilities is inadequate for residents like Maria, who has Parkinson’s disease and struggles with balance. Our interventions are direct to the problem and can provide instant solutions with the addition of infrastructures, making the travel experience more positive. With these implementations, the residents of the Brookdale Assisted Living Facility would be able to commute to nearby areas individually with ease.

Our solutions offer a methodology that could be improved upon over the years and could be adapted to environments that similarly overlook the same infrastructure.

Design To Outcomes

These outcomes could be measured by observing the frequency of Maria and other residents going out with the addition of each new infrastructure. Surveys and interviews could also be conducted with the residents to understand their satisfaction regarding the increased convenience. If a budget is available, specific biometric measures could analyze each resident’s mental and physical state before and after the implementation of the solutions, to scientifically conclude the effectiveness. Moreover, for the far solution, the app could track the frequency of usage, and feedback methodologies could be added to the application interface, allowing for constant improvements and updates for the best experience.

Links to Follow:
    ︎︎︎Two Page Report
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Works Cited

  1. “2359 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor MI.” Walk Score, www.walkscore.com/score/2359-oak-valley-dr-ann-arbor-mi-48103. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
  2. “AARP Livability Index - Great Neighborhoods for All Ages.” AARP, livabilityindex.aarp.org/search/2359%20Oak%20Valley%20Drive. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
  3. “Benefits of Intergenerational Activity.” Generationsworkingtogether.org, 2023, generationsworkingtogether.org/global-intergenerational-week/benefits-of-intergenerational-activity.
  4. Brookdale Senior Living. 26 Nov. 2023, www.brookdale.com/en/communities/brookdale-ann-arbor.html?cid=yext.
  5. “Map | Cognability.” Cognability.isr.umich.edu, cognability.isr.umich.edu/map/. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
  6. Ramos, Joana Beisl, et al. “The Role of Architecture and Design in the Management of Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, vol. 10, no. 4, 27 Oct. 2020, pp. 1301–1314, https://doi.org/10.3233/jpd-202035.
  7. “The Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH).” AARP, 23 Sept. 2021, www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/global-council-on-brain-health/.
Mark