Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Abstract

In collaboration with Gill Livingston, Professor of Psychiatry of Older People, Division of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Brain Sciences, I designed new instrument to elicit interests and plan activities for people with dementia in care homes. Boredom and agitation are major problems, so managing these would improve the life of both patient and carer. This tool takes the format of a board game as a way of being non-threatening and fun to use. Trials with different designs were carried out over a number of years, culminating in a pilot study to test the feasibility and acceptability in a number of London care homes. This has now been manufactured and available to buy. It is part of the MARQUE Project at UCL, a staff training program in care homes. We hope that knowing the residents better will help prevent agitated behaviour and help staff know what to do when already agitated. It also helps make care more enjoyable by introducing more pleasant events into daily life.

Biography

Laura Templeton has a BA (hons) Fine Art from Bristol and has worked in Healthcare Design for over twenty years. She has designed a number of games as teaching aids and realised how easy it is for people to relax and talk openly, when playing a game. She collaborated with a team at UCL over a number of years to ensure her designs had medical and scientific validity. Having seen the success of Call to mind… she is now working on other versions.

Email: laura@call-to-mind.com