Design for Dementia Care: Making a Difference

The paper discusses the growing role of design in dementia care and its power to enhance the wellbeing of people living with dementia, their carers and caregivers. It refers to three examples of recent design research focusing on creating environments, objects and technologies to support appropriate person-centred stimulation and activities in dementia care. The projects use interdisciplinary co-design approaches and ethnographic methods to establish new knowledge and develop user-centred design solutions to improve care. The authors debate that engaging end-users in the design process not only empowers the designer; the collaborative approach enables in particular the carer / caregiver to reflect on their important task and to mobilise their creativity

In the moment: designing for late stage dementia

This paper presents international multidisciplinary design research to support the wellbeing of people living with dementia. The LAUGH project aims to develop playful artefacts that will contribute to non-pharmacological personalised approaches to caring for people living with late stage dementia in residential care. This paper presents the context for this research and explains the initial stages of the work currently in progress. An inclusive participatory methodology is described in which key experts including: health professionals, technologists, materials scientists and carers of people living with dementia are informing the development of design concepts. A positive design approach in which designing for pleasure, personal significance and virtue underpin the work. The initial stages of the research have identified the significance of: playfulness, sensory stimulation, hand use and emotional memory. This paper contends that designs should aim to promote ‘in the moment’ living in order to support subjective wellbeing of people living with late stage dementia

Internal electrostatic discharge hazard risk assessment to the Galileo orbiter

A worst case assessment was performed on the Command Data System (CDS) multilayer printed circuit board and an output power transformer module in the power subsystem. An estimate of the Jovian environment during the 35 hour orbit insertion was supplied by JPL and used as an input to calculate the electron transport into the Galileo components. A radiation shielding analysis computer code, CHARGE, calculated the electron transport deposition trapped in the anticipated sensitive areas of the multilayer board and transformer module. Based on these trapped charge calculations electric fields were calculated between the identified isolated areas and the spacecraft ground. The results of the assessment of electrostatic discharge (DSD) in the CDS multilayer printed circuit board indicate that the probability of ESD in the FR4 is low. The probability of ESD in the components attached to the multilayer board, however, is uncertain based on a lack of prior experimental data

LAUGH: Designing to enhance positive emotion for people living with dementia

Dementia comprises a number of degenerative neurological diseases. It is a complex condition and each person’s experience and symptoms are different. There is a growing awareness of the need for well-designed products and services to assist with dementia care and to enhance wellbeing. This paper presents research investigating the design of playful objects for people with late stage dementia. The investigation described is a preliminary stage in the LAUGH (Ludic Artefacts Using Gesture and Haptics) project; an AHRC funded international, interdisciplinary design research project. People living with dementia, informal and professional carers, health professionals, art therapists, charity representatives, arts practitioners and designers are informing the research through a series of expert group participatory workshops and case study interviews. Observation, discussion, video, photography and investigation. Findings presented in this paper focus on the importance of emotional memory and emotional expression in the care of people with late stage dementia; the value of sensory triggers and props to stimulate emotional remembering; and the importance of designing to promote high quality social connections

Designing for wellbeing in late stage dementia

This paper presents research that is developing new ways of supporting the wellbeing of people with late stage dementia through the development of playful objects. The LAUGH project is an international AHRC funded design research project that is using qualitative and participatory approaches to inform innovative concepts for new playful artefacts to stimulate fun, joy and in the moment pleasure for people living with dementia. The research is partnered by Gwalia Cyf and supported by Age Cymru and Alzheimer’s Society, including people living with dementia from their Service User Review Panels (SURP). Data presented is informed by three pre-design development workshops in which a multidisciplinary group of experts in the fields of dementia care and design have contributed their professional experience. This paper specifically focuses on data from the third of these workshops exploring procedural memory in relation to hand-use and craft making. This paper contends that hand-use, gesture and haptic sensibilities can provide access to procedural and emotional memories, which are retained even into the late stages of the disease. Craft and making activities learned in earlier life, provide rhythmic patterns of hand activity that can enhance wellbeing by supporting in the moment sensory experience, competency and reaffirmation of personhood. Playful activities provide a person with dementia freedom to explore, learn and have positive experiences even when cognitive function and memory recall is severely impaired. Future planned workshops will see the iterative development of prototype designs and their evaluation in ‘live labs’ with people living with late stage dementia