Aims and Objectives

Aim

The aim of MinD is to develop a mindful design approach to dementia care to help people, who experience psychosocial difficulties as a result of dementia, to improve their subjective wellbeing – as the individual’s perception of their emotional wellbeing, sense of purpose and meaning of life (Steptoe et al 2015) – and engagement in social contexts. The project brings together the areas of design and dementia care within a mindfulness framework to create a holistic person-centred approach to enable individuals to manage their condition, to develop perceptions of self-empowerment, and to gain confidence with engaging socially. We will use the concept of mindfulness both as a framework and as a design approach to enable the integration of mindfulness into everyday social life (Ie, Ngnoumen and Langer 2014).

Research & Innovation Objectives (RIO)

  1. To investigate the challenges and opportunities of increasing subjective wellbeing and social engagement for people with dementia through design from a mindfulness perspective (WP2, WP3, WP4, WP5, WP6);
  2. To develop mindful co-design approaches to empower people with dementia to express their needs and challenges with social engagement during the design process; (WP3, WP6);
  3. To develop a mindful design approach to developing design product solutions to empower people with dementia to engage in social contexts (WP2, WP4, WP5);
  4. To investigate and test the conceptual and technical development of tangible mindful design solutions, both personal and environmental, supportive of personal well-being and social inclusion within a dementia care context (WP4, WP5, WP6);
  5. To develop a holistic model of mindful design-integrated dementia care with regard to the challenges and opportunities of social engagement (WP2, WP3, WP6).