Hospital wards need to resemble cosy kitchens and sitting rooms to help dementia patients feel at home, it was claimed tonight.
About one-fifth of the 38,000 people living with the condition in Ireland are accommodated in residential care facilities.
However, experts believe that patients would be much better served if their hospital surroundings resembled the homes they left behind.
New research has shown the adapted environment improved the patients' sleep and sense of independence. Visits by relatives also increased.
A groundbreaking study on the issue will be launched on Wednesday by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and Health Service Executive South.
Mount Carmel Hospital in Clonakilty is already running a carefully-adapted dementia unit for patients which was built to resemble kitchens and sitting rooms - complete with a sacred heart lamp and a cabinet of crockery.
Mount Carmel's director of nursing Carol McCann said patients in such care facilities need to feel safe, secure and connected to their former lives.
"Residential care can be a frightening and sometimes bewildering world for those living with dementia.
"They need an environment which is familiar to them and resonates of home."
The study "to examine the effects on residents of moving from the traditional care of the older person ward environment to a new dementia unit" will be launched in Co Cork on Wednesday afternoon.