By Healthcare Facilities Today

Parkinson Place in Sarasota, Fla., offers Parkinson’s disease patients support and provided a tangible focal point for potential donors to the Parkinson’s Research Foundation, according to a blog on the FacilityCare website.

"From its parklike setting to the interior rooms, offices and ancillary rooms, the welcoming ambience of Parkinson Place provides a healing beyond its programs. It’s heartwarming to walk in on any given day and see line dancing and singing taking place. The bright, cheery atmosphere beckons patients and caregivers alike to enter its portals and become a part of its world. The highly trained and respected staff encourage and direct the programs in which the patients participate," wrote Kay Trimmer, owner and president of Senior and Healing Spaces.

When Marilyn Tait, executive director, asked Trimmer to “help her pick out drapes and carpet” for the facility, she knew it would involve much more than that, the blog said. 

"To do it right, every design feature needed to complement the intended outcome: the creation of a unique facility for Parkinson’s patients and caregivers and for all the programs it would offer," Trimmer wrote.

Several design considerations were paramount: 

1. It needed to be bright and cheery. Color brings life to any decor. In Parkinson Place, it should lift the spirit but also calm the psyche.

2. It should be easy to maintain.

3. It should be easy to navigate for people in all stages of Parkinson’s.

4. Furniture should be appropriate for patients and caregivers.

5. It should be welcoming.

6. It needed to alleviate depression.

Read the blog.