Design and manufacture project to prolong independence of a person with dementia at home.

[Georgedeaton]

Hi everyone,

I study product design engineering and was inspired by my Grandads dementia diagnosis to take on my third-year project which involves making the life easier for a person directly/indirectly affected by dementia by creating a product to assist care.

I am now just over a month into the project and haveing not been entirely sure where I want to focus, I am gathering information about each type of dementia, from early to late stage and the care associated with it. I visited a care home who today who specialise in looking after people with dementia, and we discussed the challenges they as carers faced and the challenges the people with dementia faced. They mentioned that due to the dementia friendly environment, knowledgeable staff and the system they use of providing independent routines with multiple activities throughout the day, they handle dementia quite well, however, I certainly know this is not the case with every care home through the experience my grandma had as a stroke sufferer.

My grandad suffers from Alzheimer's and has been in a care home for a year now having previously been living independently at home with carers visiting him several times a day. My grandad and my family are much happier with the move as we have been fortunate enough to find him a lovely care home where he says he is being looked after very well and can actually socialise with people constantly now which is something he very much missed before. However my experience of my grandads care before the move at home makes me aware that this is an area of importance, particularly to support the personal carers who devote their lives to caring for their loved ones, no matter the impact it has on their own lives.

So having narrowed it down to prolonging the independence and care of the person at home, I am now trying to come up with ideas. These could be hygiene based, prevent wandering or falls, help keep them occupied etc. but I really need a better understanding of the particular activities dementia sufferers face routinely every day. I am hoping those who are personal carers among this forum will be able to underline these key challenges that I could create a product to assist with. This could be for example a really simple care product such as an easy to use toothbrush or a more complex product such as a fall monitoring system. If you have any ideas, or are aware of any specific care problems you or the person with dementia face I would be very grateful to hear them and I will keep you updated with the whole project if it is of interest to you.​

Thank you very much for reading my post.



Kind regards,

George

 

[Malalie]

It's really nice that you care,

Cheap and easily used surveillance products could be useful for a short time

But to be honest whats is needed is people - nice people, well trained and secure in their work. That is what we really need to look after our people with dementia. They do not need to be graduates, but they need to be well trained, and re trained throughout their careers. They need to have a career structure and a pension. We need kind, compassionate energetic people to look after our old ones, not just any young caring lass who will work for minimum wage.

Sorry - maybe you should have taken up business management

 

[Philbo]

Hi George

Welcome to the forum.

You obviously care very much for your grandparents and it has given you an insight into the vagaries of "care in the community".

I can understand Malalie's sentiment about the need for well trained caring professionals but even if we could conjure up such resources, there is still a need for innovative thinking, to develop products or applications that would help dementia suffers and their carers (and other conditions).

As various mentors advised me, during my 40+ year career, "don't try to eat the elephant in one bite". So your fact finding and analysis is a great start and I am sure you will get some great ideas from doing so.

For my own input, one of the biggest issue looking after my wife (who has fronto temporal dementia) has been the lack of support available to guide us on this perilous journey (back to the resource thing again). Now I realise that a single product-based solution is not going to solve this but perhaps an application - based approach is something worth considering?

Forgive me, for I am simply chewing over ideas here but if there was either a product or solution that would enable me to have my own virtual care support, that would be a real help. Something that takes away the need to trawl through various websites, countless leaflets and brochures etc.

For others, it may be something that can monitor their loved one remotely (as you've alluded to) to help maintain independence. Maybe shoes or slippers with built-in sensors that can detect movement, body temperature, blood pressure, location etc?

I hope this helps and good luck with your endeavours.

Phil

 

[Flavelle]

My Dad will munch through an entire tin of biscuits if left, he often says: 'I've only had one' even when faced with crumb gate and a pretty much demolished pack. I reckon a health monitoring biscuit tin to remind my add how many biscuits he has actually eaten would be ideal, an authoritative voice from the tin he couldn't ignore would be ideal. Pill blister packs are Rubbish, my oldies use tweezers to get the pills out. Could really do with a fridge which can communicate with my smartphone to say what they have most recently demolished while I'm buying food so I don't have to repeat the exercise!! Hope that helps...used to teach tech but have my hands full caring for 2x D sufferers now.

 

[Bunpoots]

I have to agree with Flavelle that something in the fridge to let me know what needs replacing would be excellent.

 

[Amethyst59]

One of the most useful things we have found recently is ‘Alexa’ (other devices are available!) Now OH can ask the time, date, put any music or radio station on, ask about the calendar ....the single biggest problem is him remembering the name. If we could change the voice command to ‘ummm’ it would be a winner. He still cannot manage the television/firestick. Something that combines the best of ‘Alexa’ with a device that could control the TV, remind OH that I will be home at 12, or to make himself a drink would help to promote his independence.

 

[Bunpoots]

@ Amethyst59. Have you seen the hilarious SNL skit on Alexa "silver"
We could do with one of those for my dad

Just google SNL Alexa

 

[nitram]

the single biggest problem is him remembering the name. If we could change the voice command to ‘ummm’ it would be a winner.

You can change the 'wake word', choice is limited at present, this may change.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201971890

 

[Amethyst59]

You can change the 'wake word', choice is limited at present, this may change.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201971890

Thank you...I did see this, but I didn’t think any of the other ‘wake’ words would be any easier to remember. I hope they do change the options...so you can choose one yourself.

 

[Georgedeaton]

It's really nice that you care,



Cheap and easily used surveillance products could be useful for a short time



But to be honest whats is needed is people - nice people, well trained and secure in their work. That is what we really need to look after our people with dementia. They do not need to be graduates, but they need to be well trained, and re trained throughout their careers. They need to have a career structure and a pension. We need kind, compassionate energetic people to look after our old ones, not just any young caring lass who will work for minimum wage.



Sorry - maybe you should have taken up business management

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your feedback! I do agree with you Malalie, and so does the care home I talked to, and probably everyone on this forum that having the correct, knowledgeable, and caring people to help people with dementia is the most important thing. However, as Phil said that does not mean there is no room for care products as even the simplest innovative product could make a noticeable difference to someone and their cares life.

Hi George



Welcome to the forum.



You obviously care very much for your grandparents and it has given you an insight into the vagaries of "care in the community".



I can understand Malalie's sentiment about the need for well trained caring professionals but even if we could conjure up such resources, there is still a need for innovative thinking, to develop products or applications that would help dementia suffers and their carers (and other conditions).



As various mentors advised me, during my 40+ year career, "don't try to eat the elephant in one bite". So your fact finding and analysis is a great start and I am sure you will get some great ideas from doing so.



For my own input, one of the biggest issue looking after my wife (who has fronto temporal dementia) has been the lack of support available to guide us on this perilous journey (back to the resource thing again). Now I realise that a single product-based solution is not going to solve this but perhaps an application - based approach is something worth considering?



Forgive me, for I am simply chewing over ideas here but if there was either a product or solution that would enable me to have my own virtual care support, that would be a real help. Something that takes away the need to trawl through various websites, countless leaflets and brochures etc.



For others, it may be something that can monitor their loved one remotely (as you've alluded to) to help maintain independence. Maybe shoes or slippers with built-in sensors that can detect movement, body temperature, blood pressure, location etc?



I hope this helps and good luck with your endeavours.



Phil

Thank you for the warm welcome to the forum Phil,



They are amazing suggestion however due to my course requirements I unfortunately can't go down a PURELY software or app-based product as it has to have a physical aspect to it due the design and manufacture requirement of the project, however I totally agree that more support is needed, in fact I found this article which shows it's one of the top 3 challenges facing primary carers:

*The forum won't allow me to post the whole thing in order to prevent spam so please search in your web browser: 'challenges facing primary carers of people with dementia opportunities for research'. It should be a pdf on the alzheimers website.

I really appreciate the help and please let me know if you have any further suggestions.

My Dad will munch through an entire tin of biscuits if left, he often says: 'I've only had one' even when faced with crumb gate and a pretty much demolished pack. I reckon a health monitoring biscuit tin to remind my add how many biscuits he has actually eaten would be ideal, an authoritative voice from the tin he couldn't ignore would be ideal. Pill blister packs are Rubbish, my oldies use tweezers to get the pills out. Could really do with a fridge which can communicate with my smartphone to say what they have most recently demolished while I'm buying food so I don't have to repeat the exercise!! Hope that helps...used to teach tech but have my hands full caring for 2x D sufferers now.

Hi Flavelle, thank you for your reply! My Grandad has the problem where he will forget he has NOT eaton, and simply won't eat, so it's really eye-opening to know that this happens on the opposite end of the spectrum, and from what you and everyone else is saying it sounds like there is definitely potential in a diet control product.

One of the most useful things we have found recently is ‘Alexa’ (other devices are available!) Now OH can ask the time, date, put any music or radio station on, ask about the calendar ....the single biggest problem is him remembering the name. If we could change the voice command to ‘ummm’ it would be a winner. He still cannot manage the television/firestick. Something that combines the best of ‘Alexa’ with a device that could control the TV, remind OH that I will be home at 12, or to make himself a drink would help to promote his independence.

Hi Amethyst59,



That is a great suggestion of some kind of universal remote, I have talked to my supervisor before about the potential of using personal assistants such as Alexia. Maybe this remote could have a large button to initiate the command instead of a voice command. Please let me know of any other functions you think would be of use.



And Bunpoots, thank you so much for sharing that brilliant SNL video with us!



If anyone had any further suggestions I would be very grateful to hear them. I am currently narrowing it down to areas including diet control, personal hygiene, loneliness, and forgetfulness. What does everyone think, are you aware of any challenges in these areas? Thanks so much!

 

[Selinacroft]

Hi - well done on caring and trying to help but don't waste time on reinventing the wheel. There is a lot of techy stuff available already so suggest you have a good google at mobility aid type sites as many alarms, clocks, reminders etc already invented.
Not sure how mechanical your idea needs to be but steps can be a huge problem- how about some kind of contraption that you stand on , and it takes you safely down the doorstep- again something similar may already exist but not cheap and obvious, or something that automatically turns the tap off after so long. Just had another idea- something that you can put in a chair that sort of ejects someone. Riser recliner chairs are so expensive, wouldn't it be easy to slip something beneath them and sort of tip them forward in a slow and controlled manner from a normal chair.

 

[mancmum]

Post cateract surgery I needed to keep an eye shield on my father. I only managed to do this by wrapping his head in micropore tape like an egyptian mummy each night. Obviously with tissue paper masking his hair so tape did not get stuck on hair. Surely there must be a silk smooth comfortable fabric which could do up at the back and therefore be impossible to take off. Thinking aobut a sort of cut down spiderman mask thing.

Other people have expressed problems about people with dementia taking out stoma inserts and cannulas.

 

[Georgedeaton]

Hi everyone! It's been a while since my last post, but I would like to update you on how the project is going. After much research, including some in partnership with the universities dementia research group, I have decided to create a denture care hub for early-stage dementia sufferers. This product aims to remind people with dementia to remove their dentures and assist with the cleaning in some way. This will probably take a while to explain and I will do my best to be brief, but please bear with me as your opinions and advise will be so important to the success of this project. I have highlighted the questions in bold and given corresponding question numbers linking to the summary of questions at the end that you can simply copy and paste, and answer any questions that you may so kindly provide advise/opinions.

So why have I chosen to do this? People with dementia are very likely to have dentures of some kind due to their age. I heard of many horror cases from my dentist of people leaving their dentures in (for some cases up to 8 weeks, where the dentist then had to physically drill the dentures out their mouth). Leaving dentures in can also cause mouth ulcers, tooth decay, and even pneumonia from the build-up of bacteria in the back of the mouth. This can be associated in-directly with common problems associated with dementia such as weight loss, dehydration, communication, and illness. By ensuring correct dental routine, the cognitive deterioration can be slowed, and wellbeing of the individual increased which has been backed up by further studies.

I am now at a critical stage in the project now where I require valuable customer research to direct the project. The initial developed concept was a denture hub/case that is designed to sit on a bedside table in the bedroom (so that a power source is provided and to ensure the user can't miss the reminder notification before bed). It has an electric toothbrush charging stand built into it so that an electric toothbrush can be used which make brushing easier (less motion required, removes more plaque, more comfortable to hold). The denture hub features a removable denture container that can be taken into the bathroom along with the brush so that the individual can carry out their daily cleaning routine. Now for the smart bit; using a combination of optical sensors the denture hub can detect whether the dentures are in the container or not and if the brush is in the charging stand, this can then remind the user to remove the dentures or charge the brush if it detects they are missing.

This was met with some concern in my interim presentation that people don't want to sleep next to their toothbrush and dentures, and the hub should be in the bathroom so the user does not have to constantly transport the dentures and brush to and from the two rooms. However as stated before it was designed to be located in the bedroom so that they can't miss the reminder notification before they go to bed, and to ensure there is a plug socket to provide the power supply. It could be located in the bathroom if the shaving socket in the bathroom is used, however, I am sceptical over how many people might have these in the bathrooms today and in a suitable location. Alternatively, I could create a battery to supply the power in the bathroom however this could create additional problems and tasks with charging.

The product is designed to be used in combination with denture cleaning tablets and an electric toothbrush. These provide powerful cost-effective cleaning (30 tablets for £1) removing 99.9% of bacteria. There is a possibility to take advantage of the colour changing event of the water when these tablets are used which could indicate whether the person has used a denture tablet or replaced the old water, thereby ensuring the cleanliness of the dentures.

Alternatively, to the optical sensors mentioned there is a technology called RFID (Radio-frequency identification) which could be utilised. RFID are small tags (can be the size of a grain of rice) that can be used to hold information (it works the same as contactless bank cards). This could provide a more accurate way of detecting the dentures, however, would require a chip to be moulded into the denture during the production and thus could only be implemented in the future. This would also allow data such as name and address to be stored on the chip making it easier to identify and return to the user if lost (a common problem in hospitals and care homes). This technology has only been used in other studies (although with a lot of success) and is not used commercially which would result in this project being conceptual

The last thing I want to do is create a product that will annoy people or cause them distress. I am still to decide how to notify the user to remove the dentures.

The primary purpose of this product is to remind people to remove their dentures, however, would it be beneficial if it reminded people to put their dentures in? My first thought was this may be intuitive that your dentures are not in especially with a full set of dentures, however in the case of a partial denture it may not be as obvious. I read not using dentures can cause bone loss and eating problems so please let me know what you think.

Finally, there is an opportunity for this product to record usage data, which could be available for family members, carers, dentists & doctors to take action accordingly.

I really appreciate any feedback.

 

[Georgedeaton]

This is a rough digital model of what it may look like to help with understanding:

htt ps://lunet-my.sharepoint.c om/:i:/g/personal/mmge2_lunet_lboro_ac_uk/EU-x-s07xLJLsVZ_BL2i_ZsBNAfgfRDCPMAsOWi4L5GNgg?e=04g7Yb



(please remove the spaces from the link above for to access it - It's the only way I can show you the image because of "You need 10 posts to add links to your posts. This is used to prevent spam."

 

[nitram]

@Georgedeaton
I think as a new member you can 'upload a file' meaning you can directly upload the *.png having saved it to your system.
At 1.57MB you may have to reduce the file size a bit

EDIT
I've done it for you

 

[Georgedeaton]

Thank you so much @nitram!

 

[Amethyst59]

Do you share this scepticism of the product being located in the bedroom?

Yes, the loo is used before bed...keep it in the bathroom. Liquid by the bed...bad idea. And you’d need to carry water into the bedroom to fill the container...and carry it to the bathroom to empty it.

2. What do you think of the alternative solutions mentioned (battery and shaving socket)?

Battery I guess....would solar power be a possibility?


3. If you have dentures, or know of someone with them, where do you keep them overnight?

Husband keeps partial denture in the bathroom overnight.

4. Do you have a shaving socket in your bathroom?

No

5. Do you like the idea of including an electric toothbrush, or is this unnecessary?

Unnnecessary

6. Do you think this would this be a beneficial feature, or would this complicate the feedback of the product and resultant usability?



7. What do you think of using RFID instead of optical sensors to make the product more reliable, but require commercialisation of RFID chips in dentures?

Brilliant idea, if it solves the problem of lost dentures in hospital or homes.

8. Which methods/combinations of methods would be the best based on your experience to notify the user to remove their dentures:

a) Audible voice reminder (could even be a personalised audio message of a family member reading a reminder).
Yup...personalised message.
b) Audible notification alarm (similar to a text message notification to indicate dentures are missing).

c) Visual slowly flashing light (beacon type light to attract attention to the unit).

d) Ambient edge lighting (like mood lighting, when on it represents the dentures are missing).

e) Visual image information display (similar to a phone screen displaying clear instructions in the form of large clear diagrams).

f) Written text Information display (similar to a phone screen displaying clear text instructions).

g) Other? – Please list.



9. Would it be beneficial if it reminded people to put their dentures in?

Yes...triggered by a motion sensor?

10. Would recording usage data be a feature of interest?

You could see this from the tablets going down?

 

[LadyA]

While I hate to pour cold water on an idea, I know that a gadget like this would have gone nowhere with my husband. It wouldn't even have registered with him, much less would he have been capable of learning how to use something new. It wasn't, with him, that he was forgetting to take his dentures out. He was refusing to. Then he'd be playing with them in the middle of the night, putting them in upside down, etc. Finally, it was better to just remove them completely, before he choked on them.

And I think a disembodied voice would scare a lot of people with dementia half to death - unless they were accustomed to auditory hallucinations, in which case they may just ignore it.

I can see where you are coming from. And possibly in the really early stages, such a gadget would work. But that early, most people with dementia are either still maintaining personal hygiene or it's not that they are forgetting it, it's that they choose not to wash, brush teeth etc.

 

[Selinacroft]

Hi George,
You have been busy! and I have to say in admiration seem to be tackling something that no one else has so far .
I think your product could be useful but in terms of dementia being progressive , it would have a limited useful period in which it would be helpful. You are relying on the person with Dementia (PWD) being able to read the reminder or hear the reminder and press buttons and follow instructions, and remember when they get to the bathroom what they were going to do in there.

No I don't have a charge point in the bathroom and I didn't have the denture issue with dad. Other people I have known with dementia and dentures leave them in the bathroom overnight.

 

[nitram]

If I had to design a 'denture care hub' my choice would be based on ultrasonics, no brush involved.