Quick Survey about CHAIRS FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA //Need your help//

[Aurelie]

Hi Members,

My name is Aurelie. I am a postgraduate furniture design student and I am currently working on my graduation project which is related to dementia.

The aim of my project is to realize a chair specifically adapted for people with dementia in relation to the comfort of the furniture that is available to them and their well-being.

It is for that reason that I would like to invite carers and relatives to participate in this research project and give a little of your precious time for this survey. Your reviews and opinions as "experts" in the subject can be of great help to improve the wellbeing of dementia patients.

The goal of the present survey is to better understand the pros and cons of existing furniture and the expectations of directly concerned persons.

Answering to this questionnaire should take no more than 5-10 minutes of your time.

Your opinion is, I think, really important and I will be really grateful if you could help me in my work.

I am looking forward hearing from you. Hope you can help a young design student!

Thank you for your Time

And do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions

Aurelie

The link: http://goo.gl/forms/OfWHi1Rm6n

 

[jenniferpa]

Aurelie has permission to post this.

 

[Aurelie]

Hi everyone, some of you where very helpful in answering the survey and I wanted to thank them.

It will be really cool if some more members have the time to fill it up

I can share the result with you after if you want!

Thanks a lot everyone !!

 

[Kevinl]

I did read this and looked at the link but didn't get it, what's a chair got to do with AZ?
My mother had AZ, lived with me for her last 3 years at 89 she needed a chair her limited mobility and joint pains helped with but that in no way related to her AZ just not too low so she could get out of it.
My wife now has AZ and no mobility issues, no bad back or arthritis like my mum and she spends probably 14 hours a day on a normal sofa.
Chairs be it height, style or whatever are more to do with physical capability than mental ability. I'll put my answers here, see what you think.
1. What is your relationship to people with dementia - she's my wife (not an option on the survey, I don't consider her to be a relative, the nearest option).
2. How many hours per day do you spend with someone with dementia - 24/7 (again not an option, it's 3 time the nearest of more than 8 which could mean just 8.
3. At which clinical stage are the dementia patients around you - higher middle.
4. Regarding your experience, how many hours per day does a person with dementia approximately spend seated? - probably most waking hours, but getting up maybe 10 times an hours for a wander.
And so it goes on...where they sit and what they sit on is where they want to and on whatever is available, specialist chairs usually relate to physical limitations and can be designed to allow for a specific infirmity. I never knew there was a special AZ chair when I google it all I get is Gill Morgan the chair of the AZ society and generic "old peoples'" chairs.
For the record my wife today spent 30 minutes sat on the bed looking out the window at the world go by, 60 minutes in the passenger seat of a Citroen, 6 hours sat on the bench seat of a barge, 1 hour sat on the steps of the barge feeding the ducks and swans and about 30 minutes sat on the grass outside talking to the boaters next door and the rest (about 5 hours) on the sofa at home.
I think you're confusing AZ with age related, diagnosed at 55 my wife has no special Alzheimer's related chair needs neither did my 89 year old mum.
Sorry to sound so negative but how is a chair AZ specific I just don't get it my wife's needs and my late mother's need (chair specific) are entirely unrelated.
K

 

[Izzy]

I've ordered a riser chair for my husband. This is not because he can't get up its because he often won't get up or has forgotten how to process getting up. I up pose that's a dementia related reason for a certain kind of chair. I use his hospital bed in the same way. Sometimes I have to to raise it to a height where he realises that getting to standing is an option.