Rod Vickroy

Healthcare design has become very good at creating places for caregivers to step away: a quiet room, a single chair, a moment alone. Those spaces matter. This session asks the next question: How can the spaces between those moments help caregivers find one another?

Drawing on Ryff’s multidimensional model of psychological well-being and contemporary work reclaiming the communal dimensions of eudaimonic flourishing, Gaffney and Vickroy reframe what it means to design for caregivers. From break rooms and team hubs to the paths caregivers travel during a shift and the sightlines that determine whether someone is visible or alone, design choices can either strengthen everyday connection or quietly reinforce isolation.

Participants will examine decent, dignified respite space as a necessary foundation—and then look beyond it to the relational infrastructure of care: the spatial conditions that make informal check-ins, shared recovery, mutual recognition, and timely help more possible. They will leave with a practical framework for evaluating existing and future spaces not only for their capacity to offer respite, but also for their ability to enable caregivers to sustain the work of caring for others—together.