Making everything light without also involving contrast is just as bad as making everything darker or taupe because the elderly eye can’t distinguish things like the edges of overlapping walls – or where an area rug starts when laid on a similarly-colored floor.

Color-wise, visually-impaired people (which pretty much by definition includes the elderly) also do better with warm colors (reds, oranges, and yellows) than they do with cool colors (blues, greens, violets).

It does also so happen that the warmer tones have a more stimulating effect, which can indeed help with depression, but older people will also simply be able to see the warm colors more accurately than the cool ones, in part precisely because of the yellowish cast that aging eyes do see through, which will result in a more pleasing experience.

When you are trying to create an esthetically-attractive environment, knowledge of color theory is critical to ensuring that what will be perceived isn’t washed out and muddied by physiology interference – and that the space will also work for those who are *not* visually challenged.

Wendy Hoechstetter, BS, EMT/Paramedic II (ret.), CAPS
Hoechstetter Interiors

Wendy Hoechstetter, CAPS

I had thought we could have hospice for the couple of days a week they would have been willing to visit my father and then fill in on other days with others we hired separately to be sure Dad was getting the meds he needed on the other days, and I was told in no uncertain terms that there was no way they would provide hospice care on that basis.

I was pretty shocked – and there was no way I was going to stop the nurses’s visits we were already doing (and that I was looking to supplement), so we ended up not using hospice until 24 hours before Dad died, when he qualified for inpatient care at their facility paid by Medicare.