The following article was featured in the Salt Lake Tribune on January 9, 2007.

MULTI-SENSORY ROOMS AIM TO SOOTHE TROUBLED MINDS
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune

SANDY- Some days, Clifford Finley slips back into the life he had forty years ago. He is young and strong and anxious to help his old friend Jack fight the latest fire at Yellowstone National Park. So he heads for the door. At such moments, Michael J. Williams will tell his 81 year old grandfather it's OK, Jack is already on top of the fire. If that doesn't work to dissuade Finley, Williams may try this: He'll walk down the hall at Sunrise Assisted Living of Sandy to the snoezelen room.
Don't worry. It's a good thing. There, Finley may curl up with Bonnie or Clyde, the facility's resident cats. He may become absorbed in floating clouds beamed on a wall or the changing lights of a fiber-optic rope, the fire forgotten. He may be offered, as happens this day, a relaxing hand massage with sweetly scented lotion.
"I've never had a lady do this for me before," Finley tells Robin Blunk, a designated care manager at Sunrise, where he lives and his grandson works.
"I've done this for you before," she reminds him.
"Boy, it's so lovely. No one has ever rubbed my hands like this before," he insists.
And just like that, snoezelen works its magic.
The Dutch word is derived from "snuffelen," which means to sniff, and "doezelen," to doze, relax. Taken together, the words get close to the pleasant, exploratory state that is the aim of snoezelen. The treatment, pronounced "SNOO-ze-len" was invented in the1970's by two therapists at the De Hartenberg Institute in Holland. They found comfortable, multi-sensory environments -lights, sounds, aromas, tactile surfaces, moving images- could draw out patients with severe intellectual disabilities. And it worked as well for adults with dementia, calming agitation and triggering positive memories and sensations.
"Redirection" is the word Williams, a spokesman for Sunrise, uses to describe how snoezelen works. "Any time a resident may be agitated or experience confusion it is great for redirecting them to something other than what their mind may be telling them, such as 'I need to go to work, I need to go to school,'" Williams said.
It is an approach backed more by acclaim and anecdote than scientific proof. Evidence to back the treatment has been hard to come by given the variablity in how snoezelen is implemented and what works for any one person. Still, snoezelen's popularity spread throughout Europe and, in the early 1990's, to the United States.
Sunrise, founded by a Dutch man and his wife, made snoezelen rooms an integral offering in their senior living centers -including its first Utah facility, which opened in November in Sandy.
Hospice For Utah also has added snoezelen to the complement of tools used by its chaplains, social workers, and aides. The setup of the snoezelen room at Sunrise's Sandy center is typical. Lights are low in the small room, which is located in the dementia wing. There is a mauve-colored sofa and easy chair. A swath of thick, white fake fur drapes over the sofa;' it's perfect for snuggling. So are the two kittens that roam freely and frequent the snoezelen room.
A projector can be used to beam images- whispy, slow moving clouds, a serene forest- on a wall. Rainbow hued colors pass through a fiber-optic rope strand that is pleasing to look at and intriguing to hold. The room can be filled with ocean, rain or other natural, soothing sounds.
A cabinet holds several lap baskets, filled with ribbons, towels, and other objects that a resident might be asked to sort through. Another basket holds the aromatic lotions that aides use to give hand or back massages.
Because Hospice For Utah visits clients in their homes or at care centers, it has snozelen to go bags filled with sweetly scented lotions, hard candy, a length of fur, a bell, squishy tactile balls, bubbles and so on. Caretakers also can pack along a suitcase that contains a CD player, projector, and various stuffed animals to create an instant snoezelen room.
Kelly Fogarty, a Hospice For Utah chaplain, first learned snoezelen at a December workshop at Hospice For Utah, though she was already doing similar things with her clients.
"It was nice to have affirmation and more tools given to me and have it presented as a form of therapy," said Fogarty. "It does really stimulate memories, and creates a sense of peace, playfulness, and joy."
She has found a large stuffed dog draped on a client's body creates a sense of warmth and safety, but also helps foster relaxation. Sometimes, Fogarty will pull items out of her snoezelen bag and let a client choose the one they find most appealing.
"It is so spontaneous, letting them react to something they've chosen," Fogarty said.
"Everybody seems to love the bubbles. It is just amazing to see someone who is generally anxious who will just relax. They are not being asked to speak a sentence, not being asked to do anything but enjoy and feel what they are feeling."