WP6 Year 4: evaluation

Semi-annual update: March – August 2019

Implementation and evaluation of the Good Life Kit has made steady progress through this period, with evaluations taking place in Germany, Netherlands, Spain and UK. Different approaches were taken in the centres, including both individual and group sessions. For example, the secondment to Valladolid, in February-March, included work with the local user group (Grupo de Expertos por Experencia).

Work on analysing the data from GLK evaluation sessions has continued at recent secondments, e.g. Luxembourg in May and Netherlands in July.

The deliverable Design Guidelines report was submitted on schedule during the Luxembourg secondment, though it was agreed that further work needed to be done to satisfy all partners before the report is widely disseminated. It was also agreed that sign-off would need to take place through the MinD management group, as otherwise there could be problems with different versions going into circulation.

A paper using material from the design guidelines report and focusing on the AIR model (Activities, Internal world, Relationships) will be presented at the MinD conference in Dresden in September.

Co-creation and co-production have remained central to WP6, as evidenced by the title of the design guidelines “With and for People with Dementia”, and also a workshop on Co-design led by people with lived experience will be held at the MinD conference.

Semi-annual update: September 2019 – February 2020

WP6 was to conduct the implementation and user testing for design proposals and prototypes developed in WP4&5 to assess their effectiveness and develop them through user feedback. It had three main objectives:

  • Iterative co-exploration of design proposals and prototypes with people with dementia, carers, and other stakeholders.
    • Where applicable, user testing of final prototypes with end-users to assess their impact and effectiveness on self-empowerment and social engagement.
    • From the test results, develop design guidelines for future use in dementia care.

WP6 has been led by NHT jointly with INTRAS and conducted alongside WP4 and 5. User testing was supported through work with end-users through NHT, UW and MMU in the UK, and through AKB in Germany, UT and ZSM in the Netherlands and INTRAS in Spain. This included the following three tasks:

6.1.      Iterative co-exploration of design proposals and prototypes from WP4&5 with people with dementia, carers, and other stakeholders using co-design methodologies developed in WP2.

6.2.      User testing of final prototypes with end-users to assess their impact and effectiveness on self-empowerment and social engagement, using appropriate methodologies and protocols for user-centred testing for people with dementia, developed in WPs 2 and 3.

6.3.      Synthesise and compare test results to develop design guidelines for future use in care centres in discussion with relevant focus groups through Alzheimer Europe and our healthcare partners.

These tasks have now been completed and the design guidelines as well as a set of recommendations have been published on the MinD website:

Several presentations at the MinD Conference, held in Dresden on 19th-20th September 2019, covered issues of co-design. These included a paper by Jennifer Lim and colleagues on obtaining informed consent and monitoring mental capacity, available at https://tud.qucosa.de/api/qucosa%3A36687/attachment/ATT-0/. Julie Gosling and Tom Dening used material from the design guidelines report and focusing on the AIR model (Activities, Internal world, Relationships), and  JG also led a workshop on Co-design with people with lived experience at the MinD conference. See https://designingfordementia.eu/news/mind-events/mind-conference-2019 for the full conference proceedings.

Co-creation and co-production have been central throughout WP6, as evidenced by the title of the design guidelines “With and for People with Dementia”. The evaluation methodologies were co-designed and co-produced, which is still a relatively novel approach.