Dementia and Design

Dementia and Design: Working towards improving quality of life for nursing home patients with dementia

Bellinga, Amarins (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)

van der Cammen, Tischa (mentor)
Albayrak, Armagan (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

2018-04-12

Over the world, the amount of patients with dementia is increasing every year. In the Netherlands this amount is already growing to 1 out of 5 people suffering from dementia. This is due to better diagnosis and the aging generation.

Nevertheless, there still has not been found a solution to cure this disease. This means that a closer look should be taken in how the wellbeing of patients with dementia could be improved to make sure that this last part of their life is experienced with no feeling of insecurity or fear. Therefore the aim of this project was to improve quality of life of patients with dementia, by design. This was done for nursing home patients with dementia that lived intramurally.

During analysis, three patient groups were found that defined the different type of patients with dementia: Wanderers, Zen dementing and Equilibrium seekers. By creating a patient journey from these different types of patients, together with a journey of formal caregivers, it was found that wanderers get restless just after lunch break because of the decrease in stimuli in the environment. From this it was decided to design for this specific patient group and try to provide them with a meaningful activity. Therefore the design goal of this project was: Improving Quality of life for patients with dementia, by designing a product (-service) that facilitates meaningful time spent. A meaningful activity is something that could provide the patient with a feeling of contributing something, how the patient feels with the process and involvement of the activity or how the patient stays connect with who they were in the past ( e.g. reminiscence).

My favourite is a product that helps patients to calm down by providing the patient with 2 or 3 stimuli.
The product is designed in such a way, that the shape giving the feeling of holding a baby or pet, due to the intuitive shape. The fabric provides the patient with a stimuli through touching the product and giving the option for reminiscence by the fabric choice. The eyes give the patient the option to make a connection with the product.
Inside the product, an electronics part simulates the rising and falling of the chest which can be felt through the back of the product.
Testing showed that My Favourite was drawing the attention from the patients when presented to them. It evoked a positive response from different behaviour profiles. More female patients were attracted to it and gained a positive experience with the product.

Medisign
Dementia
Quality of Life
Design

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ed7cf562-e9a7-4435-b52e-17ffe871b38b

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

© 2018 Amarins Bellinga