27 January 2025
Recent upgrades to the interior of Silvera’s Beaverdam Commons, a community for people living with memory loss, have made the building safer and easier for residents to be more independent.
Each of the three wings of the 59-unit building are now colour coded to help residents with wayfinding. Each resident lives either on the prairie (yellow), in the forest (green) or by the lake (blue), explains Tim Bowen, the community manager at Beaverdam.
“The different coloured hallways are really making a difference for residents. Naturally, a lot of these folks come from their own homes where there’s only one door, and when they move to a building with multiple doors that look alike, it can be very disorienting,” he says.
“Now, when residents open their doors, they see a specific colour all the way down the hall, and it eventually helps them understand this is where they live.”
Each resident room has been differentiated from another with the installation of memory boxes outside each door, which residents and their families fill with personal items – special mementos, photos, trinkets, and a name tag – to help residents identify their rooms.
Silvera’s Capital Development team also removed the bathtubs from each suite, which are falling hazards, and all the carpet in the building.
“Residents with dementia have a hard time lifting their legs over the lip of a tub, creating a falls risk, and they often also stumble on carpet because of balance issues that are common with dementia,” Tim explains.
They also added additional lighting in the hallways to help residents see more easily.
Outside Beaverdam, the Capital Development team is working on a multi-phase landscaping enhancement project.
“The purpose of the enhancements at Beaverdam is to make the overall campus more accessible and easier to navigate for individuals with dementia,” says Garrett Newman, Senior Manager, Capital Development. “Additionally, we’re providing more amenities and turning the campus into a community hub that creates stronger connections with neighbours and the Lynnwood community as a whole.”
So far, they have installed a bocce court, an outdoor music corner with six weather friendly musical instruments, and a gazebo.
This spring, they will build an herb and vegetable garden consisting of raised planters and benches, an Artful Reflection pocket park, along with the addition of various tree and shrub beds.
A new walking path will create a more even, accessible walking loop around the property, along with an outdoor kitchen with BBQ and additional sitting spaces.
“Creating environments for dementia care is very important,” says Tim. “People living with dementia need home-like environments that are warm and familiar. We do our very best to create these spaces to ensure residents are as comfortable as they can be.”