This is a group project for Baycrest Hospital, with a focus on helping people with dementia. Group members: Haocheng Zhao, Eric Zhou. Early-stage contributors: Hamxon, Hieu, Kajal.
the second floor, 100McCaul st, Toronto 17-26, January 2020
During our collaboration with Baycrest, we observed people living with dementia in the Mountainview club program (ages 65+) who have mild to severe stages of dementia. We found that some clients are more anxious to leave Mountainview and require staff members to calm them down through redirection. While effective, it is very taxing on the staff as sometimes there is a lack of knowledge about the client and/or not enough staff members.
When talking with clients, we noticed they were able to remember memories from long ago, but had issues retaining short term memories. Clients were really excited to share his or her memories with us. This experience has inspired us to design a solution that helps reduce staff workload and maintains the clients’ positive emotional state and quality of life.
Memoir is a personal memory cueing tool that utilizes both visuals and sounds to help people living with dementia recall his or her fondest memories. It also acts as a conversation starter, helping users engage with others through storytelling. Helping people with dementia recall, share, and engage with their memories and other people will improve their quality of life.
Memoir can also be used as a distraction queueing tool by caregivers to reduce their workload.
The quality of the materials and construction of Memoir enable it to pass it down as a memento of the primary user.
