The recently completed MinD project, is to be included in the forthcoming publication, ‘Designing for people living with dementia’, due out in May. MinD used the concepts of design and mindfulness to support people with dementia with self-empowerment and social engagement.

The recently completed MinD project, is to be included in the forthcoming publication, ‘Designing for people living with dementia’, due out in May.

MinD used the concepts of design and mindfulness to support people with dementia with self-empowerment and social engagement. There were 3 distinct stages to the project: data collection, design development, and evaluation, with MindTech leading the evaluation workstream.

Each stage featured user participation to help develop several products: the This is Me life story board game; the Living the Life mindful reflective booklet; the You and Me interactive decision-making tool; and Let’s Meet Up!, a digital platform for social interaction with chosen family or friends.

These products aim to reduce anxiety and enhance quality of life, well-being, confidence, social contact and engagement for people living with dementia. Seeing the person with dementia as a capable and unique individual benefits their families, and so could reduce the costs of care.

The programme resulted in co-design and evaluation guidelines (co-authored by our Centre for Dementia lead, Professor Tom Dening, Julie Gosling, Michael Craven and MinD’s PI Kristina Niedderer of Manchester Metropolitan University) representing the combined effort of all of the partners including Dons Coleston, who also took part in the MinD secondments, and involvement volunteers at Nottingham.

A new model for evaluation AIR (activities, internal world, relationships) model was developed. These resources are freely available. https://designingfordementia.eu/resources/mind-guidelines

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 691001.

Read more about the MinD project here.