University of Twente Student Theses

Login

Designing an interactive intervention to unconsciously steer residents of a dementia care facility away from the exit.

Aakster, Y.M.I (2017) Designing an interactive intervention to unconsciously steer residents of a dementia care facility away from the exit.

[img] PDF
2MB
Abstract:Dementia care facility Bruggerbosch struggles with residents who keep coming to the exit of the residence with the intention to leave. Different environmental factors around the exit of Bruggerbosch have been identified through observations. These environmental factors include a contrast in light, stimuli from the receptionist close by the exit and the natural funnel like shape of the interior. Through literature research and interviews, information was collected about the processing of sensory stimuli in people with dementia. State of the art interventions for similar problems were discussed in order to create guidelines for the design for an intervention to steer residents of Bruggerbosch unconsciously away from the exit. Through an ideation process of generating and evaluating ideas, the concept of the Lost Puppy intervention was proposed. This concept consists of a stuffed animal in the shape of a puppy that is placed in the entrance hall, close to the exit. The intervention contains a storyline about the puppy being lost and needing help to find its way back to its mother that is laying in a basket somewhere else in the residence. The storyline is built up in four phases where 1) the attention of the resident is attained, 2) the interaction with the puppy is initiated and the task is explained, 3) the resident’s attention is sustained while the resident is trying to find the puppy’s mother, and 4) the resident succeeds by reuniting the puppy with its mother. The intervention was evaluated using a realised prototype that was tested in the entrance hall of Bruggerbosch. It was observed that unfortunately no resident was able to complete the entire task of bringing the puppy back to its mother. It is therefore recommended to research further how to engage residents in prolonged interaction with the intervention. Suggestions to motivate interaction are to make the setting of the puppy more approachable and let the puppy provide more dynamic stimuli, such as a moving tail or head. However, it was also observed that the puppy generally raised positive reactions from residents and that it is possible to attract the attention of residents in the entrance hall with a puppy that uses both visual and auditory stimuli. The puppy stimulated social interaction amongst residents and provided visitors and employees of with an easy topic to start a conversation with residents.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Clients:
Roessingh Research and Development, Enschede, The Netherlands
Faculty:EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Subject:01 general works, 10 humanities in general, 54 computer science, 77 psychology
Programme:Creative Technology BSc (50447)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73081
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page