Embajadores Street in the Arganzuela district, which consists of 7 neighborhoods in the ever-changing Spanish capital, Madrid, is home to one of the Day Centers in the chain run by STIMA. In a bid to broaden their offer of therapeutic and assistive services, they have recently installed a sensory room with the SHX technology developed by BJLive!
Our friends at STIMA also aim to equip their centers in Aluche and Moratalaz with our multisensory stimulation rooms in the near future, as they consider this first step in the Embajadores Day Center a means of strengthening their commitment to professionality, a friendly approach and an excellent level of care for the elderly people who use their services.
The BJLive! sensory rooms are spaces in which users can find calm and control and enjoy a feeling of well-being, in addition to being a powerful tool for working towards therapeutic goals. The staff at STIMA focuses on improving the self-esteem and quality of life of the people who visit their centers. They are acutely aware of the benefits of sensory stimulation therapy, which can help to reduce symptoms such as anxiety and agitation, unfortunately all too common in people who have been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
As a person continues to age and their dementia continues to evolve, their sensory, cognitive and motor skills decline steadily. However, the senses continue to be the means of stimulating and maintaining these skills to compensate this deterioration. That is why there are multiple benefits in using a sensory room–also in Snoezelen rooms–for working on these skills through sensory stimulation and play. The senses and understanding are strengthened by undertaking activities that involve visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile elements.
This room creates a warm, cozy and almost magical environment that must be experienced to be understood. However, it can be summed up by saying that it is a space that can be transformed into everything a user wants or needs with a touch of tablet screen.
The SHX System allows us to work with consistent, personalized content that matches any image, sound or video with the lighting, vibration and other common elements in a sensory stimulation room to create an immersive effect that promotes different sensory experiences and helps to evoke thoughts and memories, among other things. This system allows us to transport the user anywhere in the universe and can be adapted to suit their state of mind or personal sensory and cognitive abilities.
Sensory rooms are spaces designed to adapt stimuli to every person’s specific needs. They are used to create a pleasant, safe environment that is accessible on a physical and cognitive level, which helps to engage the user, boost interaction and increase their well-being. Therefore, once the user has regulated their emotions and feels safe and calm, they can easily achieve the therapeutic, recreational or relaxation goals that have been set by the staff at STIMA.
Elderly people benefit from using sensory rooms from the moment in which specific sensory disturbances appear, whether they are visual, auditory or tactile. These disturbances hinder stimulation and engagement and can lead to a person becoming isolated from the outside world, experiencing feelings of frustration when they fail to understand what is happening around them or making everything seem too fast-moving or complicated for them. Multisensory environments can help to group stimuli as meaningful units to improve sensory integration and adequate responses. Working in the sensory room helps to maintain adequate perception and attention, which will allow the therapist to tackle other cognitive, emotional, motor and relational aspects.
People with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are greatly benefitted by these sensory spaces. Dementia makes it hard for a person to perceive and understand their immediate surroundings, and this sensory deprivation plays a major role in causing disorientation and confusion. If the user perceives and assimilates the stimuli well, their surroundings will feel less threatening and more manageable to them. This, in turn, will allow them to participate in purposeful activities without any of the feelings of frustration or insecurity that highlight disruptions in their state of mind (apathy, mood swings and agitation, etc.).
Studies have shown that a combination of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical therapies is the most effective method of delaying impairment and improving the quality of life of those affected. Using multisensory environments as a therapeutic strategy improves emotional state and behavior, complements medication and can help to reduce the need for physical containment measures.
Even people with significant sensory decline can benefit from a relaxing space that boosts well-being, communication and positive interaction with family members and professionals.
This sensory room at Embajadores features the SHX System technology, which allows every activity to be fully customized, making it an even more powerful therapeutic tool. SHX multisensory rooms offer these types of purposeful activities by creating consistent content that stimulates different sensory pathways. The content is adapted to each person, and takes into account their background and life history, their current situation, their needs and interests, and includes multiple intervention objectives.
BJLive! and STIMA share a common goal: to ensure that when people return home to their families in the evening, they feel that they have been cared for and supported by their second family in the Day Center by undertaking therapeutic activities that have helped them to achieve greater self-esteem, autonomy, vitality, excitement and interest than the day before.
If you would like to request more information on our sensory rooms, please feel free to contact us.
Qinera produces assistive technology for people with disabilities with the aim of improving their autonomy and life quality. Its human team includes: occupational therapists, special education teachers, speech therapists, engineers, IT developers and experts in assistive technology.
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