St. John’s Nursing Center in cooperation with The Hidden Angel Foundation has recently completed the design and construction of a Multi Sensory Environment (MSE) also known as Snozelen rooms. The word Snoezelen comes from two Dutch words that mean to “sniff” and “doze”.
Multi Sensory Environments offer children and adults alike a safe adventure in sensory stimulation; a fascinating space encouraging both exploration and relaxation. To date, there are now over 2, 200 snoezelen rooms in Europe and the United States. A Multi Sensory room is a dedicated and designed to heighten awareness, promote intellectual activity, and encourage relaxation. A myriad of light effects, shapes, textures, aromas, soft music and colors are strategically placed in a room to stimulate the six senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, smell and kinetics (movement). The controlled input heightens drive and motivation, and promotes self choice, well-being, social interaction and learning. “This room will be used to serve all our patients and residents with cognitive and physical disabilities, affording them the opportunity to develop new skills and become more involved with their environment. We expect great results,” said Allyson Schultz, the Recreation Direction of St. John’s Nursing Center. “We feel fortunate that our Center will play an important part in improving the health and quality of life to our patients.”
The custom-built area opened in a special dedication ceremony November 6, 2006. MSE facilities have been found to aid in neurotransmission, maximizing a person’s potential to focus, learn and relax. MSE also instills calmness in agitated individuals or those with self-injurious behaviors. Most importantly, it’s enjoyable. Imagine being in a darkened room relaxing on a foam mat or a vibroacoustic chair absorbing a sea of color and lights rotating across the walls. As soothing music plays you are attracting by the various pieces of Multi Sensory equipment that are lit up inviting you to touch and interact with them. Giant glowing bubble tubes in one corner changes color with the tap of a button. A moving kaleidoscope of images is projected around the room. A fan light in another corner pulses with color to the beat of music or a child’s voice. Draped over the vibroacoustic chair is thousands of twinkling fiber optic strands of multiple colors to be touched, handled and consumed by the eyes. The effect is both relaxing and stimulating at the same time.
After several years of research, interest and activities in the area of Multi-Sensory Environments, the Hidden Angel Foundation (HAF) was established in honor of Christopher Fornes who had Sanfilippo Syndrome causing progressive neurological regression. “We experienced first hand how multi-sensory stimulation enriched and extended his life,” said W.B (Bud) Kirchner, Foundation co-founder. “Christopher was a very special and courageous individual who taught us all the true meaning of life and love. This is why we always thought of Chris, and people like him, as Hidden Angels”. Even children and adults with the severe cognitive impairments appear happier when in a sensory room; they tend to vocalize more, stay on task, have less pain, and stress levels drop dramatically. These individuals rarely, if ever, experience the world as the majority of us do. Limitations of movement, vision, hearing, cognitive ability, constrained space, behavioral difficulties, perception issues, pain and other problems create obstacles to their enjoyment of life. Multi Sensory Environments opens a new world for individuals with cognitive, emotional and/or physical impairments providing new ways of encouraging learning, motor, neurological and cognitive development, language, and social interaction skills moving each person toward the highest functional level. The Hidden Angel Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 corporation, who mission is to enrich the lives, health, and social well-being of individuals with cognitive, emotional, and/or physical impairments through the design, development and support of programs centered on multi sensory environments (MSE). Theories in MSE demonstrate new approaches to advance educations, therapy, recreation and inclusion of special needs populations.