If you live with someone who has dementia, there’s a new app that should be on your smart device download list.
The Dementia-Friendly Home app, launched this week by Alzheimer’s Australia, Victoria, has been developed to provide carers with ideas to make their home more accessible and easier to navigate for people living with dementia.
“…most people are not aware that people with dementia may experience spatial and visual challenges as well as the more commonly understood memory issues.”
Visual and spatial changes
Launching the new app, CEO of Alzheimer’s Australia Vic, Maree McCabe, said most people are not aware that people with dementia may experience spatial and visual challenges as well as the more commonly understood memory issues.
“Changes in the brain can impact on day to day functions and potentially confuse people living with dementia. Identifying ways the home and environment can be modified to ameliorate any challenges will make a difference to the person living with dementia,” Ms McCabe said.
According to Alzheimer’s Australia, seventy per cent of people with dementia live in their own homes in the community. They hope that this app will help carers to make practical changes around the home to make life easier for the person living with dementia and help them to stay at home longer, enjoying their regular lifestyle activities and remaining engaged with their community.
Clever, useful ideas
Many of the app suggestions are small, inexpensive ideas, such as placing labels with pictures on cupboard doors. More significant changes include installing motion sensors that turn lights on and off when people walk through the house.
There are also suggestions about décor changes, like avoiding busily patterned wall or floor coverings (see pictures)
The Dementia-Friendly Home app is based on the ten Dementia Enabling Environment Principles,
part of a project that aims to develop ‘enabling environments’ for a person living with dementia .
“This app aims to enable people living with dementia to maintain their independence and continue living at home. It may also help build on their self-esteem, which can have a profound impact on the quality of life for a person living with dementia, as well as families and carers,” Ms McCabe said.
Ideas in action
Norm Smith, a carer, said he wanted to help his wife Cathy, 53 and living with dementia, to feel comfortable in their family home.
“Using the app affirmed ideas I’d had around labelling cupboards and keeping floors and hallways clear and well lit.
“It also made me realise I need to try to pre-empt situations that could be challenging for Cathy when we visit other people’s homes or our church.
“Enabling Cathy to remain involved in the daily routine, even just being able to make a cup of tea for herself and guests, to contribute to the household planning and activity is really important to us and impacts positively on her and our family,” Mr Smith said.
The Dementia-Friendly Home app was developed through funding by the joint Commonwealth and State Government Home and Community Care program. The Deakin Software and Technology Innovation Laboratory (DSTIL) worked with Alzheimer’s Australia Vic to develop this technology.
The Dementia-Friendly Home app is now available for iPad from the App Store and Android tablets from the Google Play Store for $2.99. Further information can be found at www.fightdementia.org.au/vic.
