Introducing a designing attitude in dementia care

This paper discusses how design can enhance the wellbeing of people living with dementia, their carers and caregivers. It refers to two examples of recent design research that focus on supporting the provision and facilitation of appropriate activities and environments for individuals with advanced dementia in residential care.The projects use interdisciplinary co-­‐design approaches and ethnographic methods to establish new knowledge and develop user-­centred design solutions to improve care. Questioning how design research can create sustainable impact on the lives of those affected by dementia, the paper concludes that active involvement and continued participation of users, carers and care practitioners in the design process is essential. Training on design skills and making will enable carers to adapt a designing attitude. Exploring how such training can be delivered is a chance for the design community, in collaboration with experts from health care, to take the lead in solving this problem.