The Last Place: A Retrospective Review of End-of-Life Environments from EDRA1 to EDRA50

Sharmin Kader

Why this is important for discussion and reflection at EDRA50?

EDRA has been promoting theory, research and design related to the environmental gerontology since the 1970s. There is a good amount of research was conducted on the nursing home environments considering the Third Stage or Fourth Stage of life, and presented or published in EDRA conferences. However, there is a few research study was conducted on the Last Stage of life, the end-of-life care settings. Having a retrospective review on the Last Place would be significant to develop future research and design directions.

What approach would you take in considering the history and/or future of this issue?

My Ph.D. dissertation was focused on end-of-life care settings (finished in 2016). I have identified eleven therapeutic goals for hospice environments. I also developed a post-occupancy evaluation tool for hospice or end-of-life care settings. To accomplish this two research study, I had to conduct a systematic literature review and also surveyed some hospice facilities. I wrote a chapter on the history of death and end-of-life care settings. I interviewed experts on end-of-life care researchers, designers, and administrators. In brief, the background work is done to write a paper on end-of-life care settings. I want to conduct another round of review to update the findings.

Why you are the right person to prepare and make this presentation?

As mentioned earlier, I have focused on developing my expertise in end-of-life care environments. I have received many awards and grants for researching this area. One of my paper on hospice environment has received the best paper award from EDRA. I am also related and have a connection with other researchers in this environment. So, I believe I am a suitable person to prepare a paper on this and make a presentation. I am looking forward to getting this great opportunity. Thank you.