Reminiscence of People With Dementia Mediated by Multimedia Artifacts

摘要

Given the ongoing demographic changes in the world, there is not only a growing senior population, but also more people with dementia. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical interventions are limited. However, psychosocial interventions, e.g. reminiscence, are promising in improving the mood of people with dementia as well as the communication between them and their caregivers. At the same time, new possibilities to support reminiscence and communication of people with dementia are arising with advances in multimedia, sensor technologies and tangible computing. To date, the use of technology is not widespread in care practice and more research is needed to advance this. This research examines how tangible multimedia can be of added value in supporting reminiscence and communication for people with dementia and their caregivers and how to open up a dialog with caregivers about technical probes. Qualitative research using six experiential probes was conducted to explore different aspects of tangible interfaces and multimedia. The research participants were care professionals, IT experts and people with dementia. We conducted a number of interviews, field studies, focus groups and an expert workshop. We used qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis to identify themes from the data for each probe, which were consolidated into four design considerations for technologies supporting reminiscence of people with dementia. In addition, we reflect on the probe itself as a way to engage stakeholders in the design of new care technologies.