How to Create an Outdoor Space Care Home Residents Will Love

• Outdoor spaces in care homes are vital for residents’ physical and mental well-being, offering benefits like improved vitamin D levels, better sleep patterns, and opportunities for exercise.
• Choosing the right plants is crucial to avoid trip hazards; long, sprawling vines and encroaching plants on pathways should be avoided.
• Simple, wide pathways that loop back to their starting point help prevent confusion and ensure residents can navigate the garden easily.
• Comfortable seating placed throughout the garden and accessible, clearly marked entrances and exits encourage residents to enjoy the outdoors and promote independence.

Time outdoors is essential for everyone, not just care home residents. It provides us with much-needed vitamin D for a healthier body, promotes more consistent sleep patterns and helps us get some essential exercise in!

However, care home residents might need an outdoor area that caters specifically to their needs in order for them to get the most out of it, and we’re going to be covering just that.

What Are The Right Plants For Care Homes

Everyone appreciates beautiful plants in their garden, but it’s important when designing a care home outdoor space that you don’t choose plants that could be a trip hazard. Any long, sprawling vines or ferns should be avoided, and it’s important to keep an eye on pathways to make sure that certain plants don’t start encroaching.

Simple Routes

One of the most important things about a care home outdoor space is that the pathways are wide, easy to follow, and lead back to where they started. It’s easy for residents to get confused by paths that meander and crossover with each other, so keep this in mind when designing yours.

Comfortable Seating

Everyone needs a rest now and then during a walk, and this is even more true for care home residents. That’s why it’s absolutely essential that you introduce comfortable seating to your outdoor space.

We recommend placing benches in multiple spots throughout the garden, preferably at separate ends so residents will have the opportunity to sit no matter where they are.

Entrances and Exits To Care Home Gardens

Having easy-to-access and use entrances and exits isn’t just a necessity for the home itself, it’s also a very important tool for getting residents outside in the first place. That’s because if a door is a little hard to find or tough to open, then this could put residents off and encourage them to stay inside.

This is why doors that allow access to an outdoor space, should be wide, clearly marked and, ideally, automatic so that residents can freely come and go without effort. Contact for a free quick quote!