Hi everyone,

I am currently focusing my final year project on Dementia as due to having personal experience within my family, I would love to design a product to help Dementia patients and their relatives/carers in some way.

I have done a large amount of research and narrowed my topic down to designing a product that will ease anxiety and agitation in Dementia patients once they first move into a care home. From conducting primary research and from experiences that I have seen personally, the stress that a Dementia sufferer experiences from changing their living environment can lead to agitation and restless hands, which causes a large amount of stress and discomfort for the patient and also their family and carers.

I am aiming to design a kit focusing on sensory stimulation, that will potentially have different fidget tools inside to aid in calming, with the hope of easing their restless hands and stress, and therefore hopefully preventing further health problems such as insomnia.

If anyone has any feedback or opinions on this idea, I would be very grateful to hear what you have to say.
All replies will be kept anonymous and will only be used as inspiration for my project!

Thank you!
Holly

 

Hi all, thank you so much for your responses so far!

I am trying to narrow down my project whilst keeping your advice in mind.

I have am now thinking of aiming to design a product focusing on sensory stimulation. I know that there are many DIY and branded fidget muffs and fidget cushions out there in the market, however from conducting some primary research I have found that some Dementia patients find them quite childish and do not make full use of their potential. I would love to be able to change this by designing an improved sensory product, potentially a sensory flower or a sensory nature pad. This will be able to incorporate a love for nature and the outdoors, with sensory stimulation using touch, sight and hearing. I am thinking of petals/wings that can open up and be personalised with the user's personal items, potentially things that will remind them of their families/home. Materials used will all be soft fabrics to provide comfort and there could be different fidget/fiddle elements on it to remind the user of nature.

I would like this to be different to be almost a re-design of the original style of fidget muffs/cushions, using bright colours with a nature theme. I love the idea of the PWD being able to personalise it, with photos of family etc.

Would be very grateful if any of you have some more opinions on this.

Thank you!
Holly

 

Thank you for this Will definitely look into doing that, it is a great idea!

 

Thanks for your reply

Haven't seen this one before, however i'm aiming to make my project fairly different to that. As that one is already on the market, I may try and steer it away from the flower and come up with another shape for mine

 

Thank you for your reply Yes, I have researched existing products currently on the market. I would like to be able to design something that will be inspired by and in some way re-design the traditional dementia products that are currently on sale

 

Thank you so much, this is all very helpful info! Will definitely be taking this into consideration when designing!

 

Thank you