The Power of Place: How Design Shapes the Dementia Experience

Free General Course

2 CE credits

Location: 305 West End Assisted Living
New York, NY 10023

Course Description: The environments we create have a powerful impact on how individuals living with dementia feel, function, and move through their day. Thoughtful design can reduce distress, support independence, and help individuals remain in their homes and communities longer.

This dynamic, interactive workshop explores how to create dementia-friendly environments across homes, care settings, and adult day programs. Participants will gain practical, real-world strategies to design spaces that promote safety, comfort, and ease of navigation, while also reducing responsive behaviors such as agitation, aggression, and wandering. The session integrates key concepts of emotional memory and trauma-informed care, helping participants understand how past experiences shape present reactions—and how design can either trigger or soothe those responses.

Presented by Jennifer Reeder, LCSW who recently led the development of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s dementia-friendly model home, The Residence in Amityville, Long Island, this workshop brings real-world insight and immediately applicable design solutions you can use across settings.

From this course you will be able to:

1. Identify at least three dementia-friendly design elements that support safety, independence and quality of life.
2. Apply at least two trauma-informed care principles to environmental design to promote emotional safety and reduce distress.
3. Describe how emotional memory impacts an individual’s response to their environment and give one example of how it can be incorporated into design.
4. Evaluate an environment using dementia-friendly criteria and recommend at least two modifications to better support individuals living with dementia.

Agenda

5:00pm – 5:40pm – Dinner and drinks

5:40pm – 5:50pm – Brief presentation from our sponsor

5:50pm – 8:00pm – Workshop

• 5:50 – 6:10 – Understanding dementia & Role of Environment
• 6:10 – 6:30 – Emotional memory and trauma-informed design
• 6:30 – 7:00 – Core dementia-friendly design principles
• 7:00 – 7:10 – 10-minute break
• 7:10 – 7:40 – Interactive application activity
• 7:40 – 8:00 – Designing to reduce responsive behaviors & support movement

Sponsor:

305 West End Assisted Living
New York, NY 10023

Presenter: Jennifer Reeder, LCSW, SIFI
Jennifer Reeder is the Senior Director of Education and Social Services for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. This includes overseeing AFA’s National Toll-Free Helpline staffed by licensed social workers, and community class programs all instructed by various therapists and educators. Ms. Reeder graduated in 2011 from Temple University with a Maters of Social Work, and entered the not-for-profit sector providing in-home therapy to families in the Philadelphia area for over 9 years. She is proud to now be supporting individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia-related illnesses while providing clinical guidance to the licensed social workers of AFA. She encourages engagement and peer support from attendees, while drawing from real life situations to enhance the learning process.

AFA #1898 is approved as an ACE provider.
This training is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) to provide Continuing Education (CE) Credits and pre-approved by the Commission for Case Management Certification (CCMC). AFA is an approved continuing-education provider for licensed social workers by the New York State Education Department (NYSED).