Snoezelen translated into Dutch means “smell, feel and snooze/relax.” Snoezelen is either a room or room enhancements that provide a multisensory experience. They were created to reduce the unpleasant effects of sensory deprivation in patients with learning disabilities. Today they are used on patients with a variety of psychological and behavorial symptoms. It is the wide range of symptoms being treated that creates difficulty in evaluating the success of this type of environmental therapy.
The goal of this paper is to present the creation and validation of a fast and practical evaluation tool of Snoezelen environments, based on five essential human dimensions: anxiety, communication, pleasure, adaptation to the surroundings, and affection. The aim of the COMMUNI-CARE tool is to objectify the degree of well-being that the patient transmits in a multisensory enviornment (MSE).
A behavioral evaluation expert conducted 143 multisensory stimulation interventions on patients who were diagnosed with some form of dementia over several weeks. Following the intervention, he directed more than 50 therapy sessions to gather data on the different reactions and behaviors based on the five dimensions using a Likert scale to report results. Lastly, they analyzed the tool’s reliability and validity using the statistical program, SPSS 16.0.1.
The COMMUNI-CARE scale was created as an evaluation tool for reactions and behaviours of patients with dementia in a Snoezelen multisensory stimulation environment. It accomplishes the classic psychometrics´ basic principles of construct and criteria validity, as well as reliability. Based on results, this scale can be considered as a valid, reliable, easily applicable tool. And it takes into account the three temporal stages during the intervention by scoring at the beginning, middle, and end of the session. Those scores are then totaled.
Further application and publication on the findings are needed to reinforce this tool as an effective way to evaluate Snoezelen environments both for this population as well as the others that utilized this type of environmental intervention.