The Dementia project
Early-stage support for informal caregivers caring for their parent with dementia
Type of work: Co-design, facilitation, and strategy work - Systems and data-driven design - Graphic Design
Our client Regie op Dementie (ENG: Managing Dementia), an NGO focused on helping family caregivers better care for their parents with dementia, was curious whether, if we recognise the disease earlier, we could provide better support and a more dignified path for both the person with dementia and their loved ones
Community Spirit
Together with Wina Smeenk, professor of Societal Impact Design and Esther Krijnen, senior researcher in Nursing at the University of Inholland, we set up a co-design research approach to help us understand how families can recognise dementia earlier. Unbeaten Studio designed and facilitated 4 co-design sessions with family caregivers from rural and urban areas with a migration background, as well as with professionals in the field of behavioural change and (in)formal caregiving. We wanted to understand both the living context of the loved ones and of their parents and how they related to each other. We created tools and exercises to help us gain these insights.
Intelligent Adaptation
The research helped us identify 4 caregiving archetypes: the Care Coordinator, the Loving Carer, the Meaningful Carer, and the All-giver. And we came up with over 30 ideas, which we narrowed down to 8 potentially viable interventions. We paired each archetype with what we thought were the best-fitting interventions. We tested prototypes of the archetype narratives and the interventions with caregivers who had earlier participated in one of our co-design sessions.
Longterm Stewardship
We paired community involvement from the beginning with the creation of recognisable, relatable solutions tailored to the needs of a specific archetypal caregiver and the parent with dementia. This ensures they can use the interventions quickly or adapt them to their situation to relieve stress and mental overload.
How did nature inspire us during the project?
Not only does nature inspire us, but living and working in the Spanish Pyrenees means that the small community you live with also becomes a source of inspiration. Alongside the more advanced interventions we create for caregivers, we came up with simple, actionable ideas to strengthen communities in urban areas. Ideas that help people know each other better and understand that spending time together doing things creates strong bonds.
The riverbed of the Cinca River near our office inspired us to frame how differently people who care for someone with dementia are more or less emotionally and mentally attached. We noticed a few things, for starters: the stream is never straight and changes all the time, just like our life journeys. Looking at the riverbed, we saw that the big rocks were close to the stream and smaller rocks were farther away from the stream. We took both bigger and smaller rocks to one of the sessions and asked participants which rock they were imagining the river was the parent with dementia. The big rock signifies you have a strong emotional and mental attachment to your mom or dad, and small rocks mean that you’re further away from your parents and less emotionally attached. This sparked a moving conversation about the relationship between adult kids and their parents.
Do you have a challenge that is related to mental health? Or are you curious about how co-design can help you in a public-private collaborative project?