Kitchen app for people with early stage dementia

[canary]

Im not sure that help in making a cup of tea is the best thing to focus on. Mum could make a cup of tea when she could no longer do any other sort of cooking (including microwaving a ready meal), no longer understood how to work her TV and her digital photo frame that was all set up and just needed plugging in remained in its box.

The sort of technology that you are thinking about could be used by someone in the early stages of dementia, but unfortunately they tend to be very resistant to change, because change means learning new things and this is what they are having trouble with. Therefore they cling to the old ways because they are already learned (right up until the time that they are forgotten) - even if the new ways would make life easier.

 

[Amethyst59]

Yes, please! Something to make turning on the TV easy. My OH is motivated enough to want to watch TV, but if I leave him and he presses the wrong button on the remote then it all disappears. Voice control? He can manage Amazon Echo

 

[nitram]

Yes, please! Something to make turning on the TV easy. My OH is motivated enough to want to watch TV, but if I leave him and he presses the wrong button on the remote then it all disappears. Voice control? He can manage Amazon Echo

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/08/what-can-you-do-with-an-alexa-voice-controlled-tv/

I'm sure there are more if you Google

 

[Amethyst59]

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/08/what-can-you-do-with-an-alexa-voice-controlled-tv/

I'm sure there are more if you Google

Thank you! I’m just setting it up. You are a star.

 

[Amethyst59]

Twenty minutes later...I nearly got there, but OH’s TV is too basic. I will try it with my TV after the weekend. It will be a godsend, even if does work at only one house.

 

[Jacob1404]

Hello, thank you for all the great feedback again we really appreciate it!

We understand that it might be confusing to understand our initial idea process of making a cup of tea, so we created a storyboard to help explain it better.

 

[Amethyst59]

Hello, thank you for all the great feedback again we really appreciate it!

We understand that it might be confusing to understand our initial idea process of making a cup of tea, so we created a storyboard to help explain it better.

I love the clear illustrations...and I’m sorry, but I still think, if dementia had got to the stage where such instructions were necessary, then the PWD would not be able to follow the written instructions....or probably even the correct sequence of pictures.

 

[canary]

Im afraid that I agree with @Amethyst59

People with dementia can usually make a cup of tea until well into the progression.
When mum got to the stage that she could not make a cup of tea she was at mid-severe stages. She could not dress herself properly. She did not know what day it was - or, indeed, whether it was day or night. She could not understand instructions left on her whiteboard - in fact she could not remember that she had a whiteboard. Any notes left for her about her home were disregarded as they obviously did not apply to her. She could not tell anyone her address or date of birth. She could not use the telephone.

And yet, until just before that she could make herself a cup of tea.

 

[nitram]

I broadly agree with others.

• People with dementia successfully making cups of tea don't need this high tech solution, it could even confuse them.
• When they get to the stage where they can't make a cup of tea they won't understand kettles etc talking to them, remember they may have auditory hallucinations.
• If you carry on with this project please make two 'storyboards'. Milk before tea/milk after tea, no point in confusing people any more.

 

[Amy in the US]

If you would accept the hypothesis that, for my mother making a pot of coffee (with her coffeemaker that sat on the counter in the kitchen) is the equivalent to making a cup of tea, in that she did it multiple times per day, with the same method and equipment, for the last 45 years (she is 75), then I do have further comments.

When my mother went into the care home almost three years ago, her dementia was only just diagnosed. She had been living at home, alone, with little support and no carers in.

She could not: shop for food, cook, clean, bathe herself, pay her bills, recognize danger smells (smoke, spoiled food, gas), take her medication properly, or know that her clothing, flat, towels, and bedding were filthy. She could not safely drive, and could only drive to the chemist and the nearest store. Her executive functioning was basically nil, she had visual perception problems, she was not oriented to time, she had major short term memory issues, she had delusions and hallucinations, she was malnourished. She could read, but not comprehend what she was reading. She could not follow a sequence of directions, whether oral or written. She could sometimes work her television (an important item for her as a major sports fan), but not always.

She could still make a pot of coffee.

 

[Amy in the US]

I am sorry if the tone of my post was discouraging. I am wholeheartedly in favour of anything to help a PWD (person with dementia) and/or their carers.

Short of a cure, or better medications, I can recommend better awareness, better education (especially among the medical and social services professionals, who ought to know better but often don't), and, to be frank, more funding for support for PWDs and their carers and more care homes, day care facilities, hospital wards, transport schemes, professional carers, and so on, geared to deal with dementia.

That is what would really help, to be honest. Not as much fun as a talking teapot, but if everyone on TP had access to a GP who was understanding, paramedics who were dementia trained, a day care centre that was affordable and within a couple of miles, an Admiral Nurse, a quicker response from SALT and the Incontinence Clinic, and a social worker (who wasn't clueless and unhelpful), I could go on but will stop, that would make all the difference.

 

[nitram]

An observation.
It pleases me that several threads asking for help/advice in relation to a research project to help people with dementia are started.
This is an indication that the problem of dementia is being promulgated.

What worries me is that the researchers ( and their tutors?) have little comprehension of dementia.

 

[CeliaW]

@Amy in the US

Your two posts above make very valid points - as do many of the others. But I just wanted to send you a hug as I can imagine it won't have been easy (understatement! ) to list what your Mum couldn't do. It's really hard realising all those taken for granted skills have been lost. So thank you - I am sure it will help the OP.

 

[Amy in the US]

@CeliaW, thank you, that is very kind of you. All hugs and support are gratefully accepted!

@Jacob1404, my post is meant to present something like a short case history, by way of illustration of what one PWD in the middle or middle-later stages can and cannot do.

Dementia is a difficult condition to design assistive technology for, as there are different types of dementia with different presentations, each person progresses in a unique way, and capacity and ability can fluctuate dramatically, day to day or moment to moment. That makes the designer's job much harder-a task I do not envy.

 

[Laura40]

Hi,
In agreement that an app to help make a cup if tea would probably not be helpful. However just an observation, my husband can not use a smart phone anymore, gets confused with the remote control for the tele, can not even help me fill the car up with petrol which he could do 3 months ago. But he uses his iPad daily without any prompting whatsoever. I continue to download new apps on it for him and with a little bit of coaching he learns how to use these, although always reverts back to the 3 or 4 he likes the best. I really think with dementia it is so personal there is no one response that is correct for all as the presentation is so unique.
iPads are far more simpler than pcs, Not that I approve but I've seen toddlers using them, I think lots of today's technology is becoming simpler and simpler to use and if you are already adept before the onset of dementia then there is a good chance that it is something you can probably continue to access well into the condition.
That said my husband has FTD and his memory is still excellent, it's his random behaviour, cleanliness, apathy, eating, and completing multiple step operations, etc that are issues at present.
Apps have to be something that can be utilised in the future especially for those with Early Onset who are already familiar with using smart technology just maybe not so useful for the elder generation who are not already familiar with it. Ipads take no thinking to switch on, a finger swipe opens them up far easier than any remote control!

 

[Shedrech]

hi @Laura40

just to say ..... this is an old thread from 2017 .... so the original poster is unlikely to respond to any new replies

 

[Laura40]

Thanks, I'm currently surfing through lots of the threads, will take note of the dates a bit more! There is always something new on here to take note of...

 

[WJG]

I suspect this project is done and dusted - but I just want to say that the problem Ibface with cooking now is sequencing: I seem to find it increasingly difficult to understand how to get the order and timings right. So an app which cook me through recipes in real time could possibly be helpful. In fact, it could help cookery beginners too. It would need to have a timer function, such that it could say 'put onions on to fry gently now' and 'stop cooking onions, put in carrots' ten minutes later.