Touchscreens and multimedia help take care of people with dementia
The University of Dundee and Balhousie Care Group have formed a partnership to create an innovative use of touchscreens and multimedia to enhance the care of people with dementia.
The three-year project will research and develop software that can act as an external communications bridge between carers and people with dementia through the creation of simple but effective `external personalities’. These will take the form of an interactive multimedia presentation that will contain biographical and personal information relevant to a particular person with dementia.
The US Dementia Weekly online service has detailed the project.
It points out that people with dementia who are living in a residential home can be very difficult for new staff , or even experienced staff, to get to know because their communication is limited or non existent.
Yet without exception these people have led lives full of incident and relationships, jobs, hobbies, awards, and interesting experiences. In order to fully establish communication, carers must know about these past histories of the people under their care, which can be very difficult to achieve.
“Establishing communication between carers and people with dementia is an important issue with vital implications for their welfare,” said Dr Norman Alm, senior lecturer in the School of Computing.
“In cases where it is possible to form greater links with those in their care, carers are better able to interact with the person as a whole personality, and not just a set of needs to be serviced.”
