Welfare and Addiction Facilities
Substance abuse, addiction, domestic violence, and abject poverty are all issues that deeply impact communities and individuals alike. Facilities that support people experiencing any of these traumatic conditions face unique challenges compared to other medical and mental health facilities. A whole-person approach targets emotional, spiritual, physical, psychological, and social aspects of treatment. In this way, sensory rooms can be an invaluable resource for therapists, patients, and family members in welfare and addiction facilities.
Trauma & the Brain
Our brains are very sensitive to the world around us. Brains that develop with all the right amounts of love, learning, and discovery react differently than those affected by trauma and addiction. What therapists know, that most of the population isn’t aware of, is that these conditions actually change how the brain functions. Physical and emotional trauma affect the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. These areas are primarily responsible for fear-response, storing and retrieving memories, and regulating emotions. Addiction can cause temporal lobe damage, which is responsible for sensory input among other things.
Emotional Self-Regulation
Luckily, the human brain is also incredibly adaptive. Therapies can retrain it to function in a healthy way and, in some cases, even repair damage caused by trauma and substance abuse. As is evident from the areas that these conditions affect, patients struggling with PTSD, addiction, destitution, or other similar issues, tend to have lost the ability to emotionally self-regulate. Controlled sensory environments, in combination with therapy, can give patients a safe place to rebuild those neural pathways.
Building Trust
Sensory integration rooms can support both de-escalation as well as therapeutic goals. These are places where patients can find calm as well as interact with stimuli on their own terms. In a world where it is easy for them to lose control, having a safe place to regain composure, develop appropriate emotional responses, and learn healthy coping mechanisms is vital to their success. When a person can learn to trust their senses again after a traumatic experience, they build confidence in themself and in the relationships they build around them.
The designs and layout of our rooms are based on the physical space and the needs of the facility and its people. Our sensory products can also be integrated into rooms that have a dedicated purpose; for example, music or art spaces. If you would like to learn more about how a sensory room could support the patients in your welfare or addiction facility, contact us today for a consultation.