Mission and Objectives – Designing for People with Dementia

Mission

The mission of the MinD Network is to:

Promote the recognition of design and its power to improve quality of life.
To promote design as a beneficial and effective tool to improve mental health and wellbeing in society, with relation to mental illness, dementia and neurodivergent conditions.
To develop and advocate design interventions that promote mental health and wellbeing.
To inform design innovations, including environmental, service and product innovations, by a mindful design approach to promote wellbeing, resilience and prevention.
To encourage mindful co-design, using and developing the MinD framework and tools as a basis for mindful design innovation.
To include people with lived experience as well as related stakeholders in the co-creation of all design interventions to ensure their relevance and appropriateness.
To offer and promote training in mindful co-design and innovation for designers and professionals to ensure awareness of, and competence in, mindful co-design methodologies and innovation.
To work towards establishing international standards for design innovations for mental health, dementia and neurodivergent conditions.
To transfer lessons learned and approaches to other stakeholder groups (e.g. people with other long-term conditions).

The objectives of the MinD network are to:

Facilitate joint research and development to advance knowledge, understanding and practices of designing for mental illness, dementia and neurodiverse conditions internationally.
Promote and develop mindful design solutions as a way to encourage and promote wellbeing, self-empowerment and social engagement, resilience and prevention.
Promote and train diverse stakeholders in mindful co-design and co-production values and practices to promote wellbeing, respect and dignity for all involved.
Support the participation of people living with mental illness, dementia and neurodiverse conditions to ensure design interventions are relevant, appropriate and fit for purpose.
Work towards the redesign of health and social care services to enable a holistic, person-focussed and mindful approach.
Develop policy and offer advice to policy makers, 3rd sector organisations, professional practitioners, etc. to facilitate implementation of the MinD network aim, values and objectives.