Is It Okay To Use Mirrors in Memory Care?

Vivant Senior Living recently had a podcast conversation with Rachael Wonderlin of Dementia By Day and at the fifteen minute mark we discuss a question that routinely comes up when designing for memory care. Is it okay to use mirrors in memory care?

Below is a transcript of the segment where we discuss using mirrors in memory care. Note it was edited for clarity.

Andrew: [00:15:51] What is your opinion on mirrors?

Rachael: [00:15:57] Only once in my entire life have I ever heard, and, let me say, I heard this like third hand that a memory care resident had been disturbed by their reflection in a mirror. More often, residents just look in a mirror and they see themselves and are not bothered by it. Or I've watched a resident look in the mirror and say, oh, that's a picture of my mom. Or, that's a picture of my friend. Or like, I've had people who say, oh, that's my neighbor. And they think they're looking at a window and they're waving to their neighbor. 

So, you know it is jarring as anything if you ever walk into a bathroom and you're like washing your hands and you look up and you expect to see your face and then you don't. Like, there's no mirror there at all. It's really weird. You're like, what? You know, you're just trying to check your makeup or something and then there's no mirror. It's really jarring. 

Andrew: [00:16:53] Right, right. Yeah, we opted to use mirrors in our memory care homes that we renovate for memory care. Early on, we had a discussion because someone who operates a number of memory care communities told us not to put up mirrors. We were told people will freak out when they see themselves in the mirror. And we were like, really? I've never heard that. So, I Googled it and there's not a lot of strong evidence online either way.

Rachael: [00:17:35] No, because it's like so few and far between. It comes down to an individual difference, like if you have a resident who is disturbed by the mirror. Well, we can pretty easily solve that. And it's either taking the mirror down or moving it to a spot near some pictures. There's a lot of different ways to solve it. And that would be like an individual solution.

Rachael: [00:18:00] But same thing with the butter knives. Just like because one person has been unsafe, like cutting their food doesn't mean we can take knives and forks and everything from everybody else. That doesn't make any sense.

Andrew: [00:18:14] Sure.

Rachael: [00:18:15] So, there are situations where some people should not have certain objects. But that's for that individual person. We don't need to take it away from everybody. And like you said, there'll be like one person who says, well, they'll make a sweeping statement like but we can't have mirrors because it's going to freak everybody out. And then unfortunately, I'm glad, like you obviously did your homework and you looked into it. You were like, well, this doesn't seem real, but a lot of communities just go yep and they take it at face value and they go, yep, that's what it is. We're not using mirrors now.