Home environment design theories and models related to the occupational performance, participation and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities: A scoping review.
Audrey Su Lin Yong, David Haines, Leonard Henry Joseph
PMID 40337192WHAT IT FOUND
This review maps design theories for homes of people with intellectual disabilities.
It highlights four principles: offering safety and comfort, providing control to manage stress, supporting skill acquisition, and fostering person-environment reciprocity. These inform assessment and advocacy, but do not prove that specific designs improve outcomes.
Key findings
01The review identified four key themes for home design: offering safety and comfort, providing control and choice to manage stress, offering skill acquisition for continued learning, and supporting person-environment reciprocity.
02Design strategies to manage stress include providing 'refuge' spaces for privacy and 'prospect' areas for visual scanning, allowing residents to preview environments before entering.
03Sensory-sensitive design principles suggest compartmentalising spaces for specific activities to support routine and avoiding high-stimulus areas like kitchens during most of the day.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review did not perform quality appraisal or assess levels of evidence, so the included theories and models vary in their rigour. Only English-language documents were included, which may miss relevant perspectives from other cultures. The authors had health professional backgrounds, which may have skewed the selection towards occupational therapy and psychology rather than architecture or other disciplines. The review identifies theoretical concepts but does not provide empirical evidence that these design principles lead to measurable improvements in well-being or participation for people with intellectual disabilities.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and no financial support for the research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that applying these design theories will definitely improve patient outcomes. This is a scoping review of concepts, not a trial of effectiveness, so it offers a framework for thinking about home environments rather than proof that specific changes work.