With Singapore's increasing aging population, by 2030, 1 in 5 people above the age of 60 will develop Dementia.
Common symptoms of Dementia includes Memory Loss, which leads to consequences such as miscommunication, being lost and afraid and apathy. Statistics show 60% of the people who develops Dementia will also develop Depression.
What can we do to alleviate the emotion consequence of memory loss?
Dementia is an irreversible condition, but there are way to slow down the progression of memory loss, namely Reminiscence Therapy (RT). This form of therapy can be referred to as a 'prompted conversation' and can be done as simply as asking questions about what they did during the day or what was their likes and dislikes. As part of the treatment, caregivers usually bring in various objects to jog their memory of certain event, place or person.
This makes use of their five senses which in turns improves their cognitive skills.
The senses of touch and smell especially have been known to be the strongest senses in which we connect to memories.
Introducing Majolica, a way to help tangibilise uncaptured memories. Majolica, inspired by Peranakan tiles, is a series of rearrangable storage and display cases.
Incorporating Reminiscence Therapy with Sensory Play, each storage case contains craft materials such as air-dry clay, scents and magnets.
Reminiscence Cards were created as conversation prompts. A typical RT session can start of by looking through any one of the three decks of cards.
ReminiScents is a series of nostalgic smells of our life, such as the smell of kopi, incense and spices. Users can drip them into the air-dry clay as a way of incorporating smell with sensory play.
