Snoezelen Room Offers Engagement & Stimulation at Sage Living
- Date Submitted: Jan 30, 2024
- Category: Impact Story
“ For a lot of the folks in our memory care unit, they see that they're the one in control, so they press a button, or whatever they're doing creates a direct effect. That is really empowering and rewarding, because in so many aspects of their life, they don't have that.”
Patients with memory loss and brain change impairment have unique needs, especially when they live in a long-term care community like Sage Living at St. John’s Health. An innovative resource that caregivers and residents enjoy is the Snoezelen Room — a space with an appearance as whimsical as its name. Snoezelen comes from the Dutch words “snuffelen,”
to explore, and “doezelen,” to relax. A Snoezelen Room is a controlled, multi-sensory, therapeutic environment that soothes, stimulates and helps reduce agitation and anxiety.
“It's a Dutch concept, and it provides sensory stimulation,” explained Lara Cilo, Speech Language Pathologist at Sage Living. “The idea is it's providing that cognitive engagement in a multi-sensory way that's not overly stimulating. It doesn't necessarily take any language skills or problem solving skills, but hits on the basic things like cause and effect, sensory input, watching patterns.”
With an array of lights, moving parts, and features that residents can physically engage, the benefits of the Snoezelen Room are practically endless. “For a lot of the folks in our memory care unit, they see that they're the one in control, so they press a button, or whatever they're doing creates a direct effect. That is really empowering and rewarding, because in so many aspects of their life, they don't have that,” reflected Lara.
“Occupational therapy has been using it with fine motor skills, whether it's pressing a button, touching strands of light, or using a simple controller. Some of the visual things can promote a little bit of discussion or language use with higher-level patients,” she explained. “One of our therapists had a resident in there who was mostly nonverbal, and she had some verbalizations that were relevant to what was going on in that space. It just really stimulates the mind and opens up the possibility for residents to perform at their best.”
The Snoezelen Room was generously funded by the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole.
