This was a systems design project Celia Pankhurst and I executed for a Social Change design course in Spring 2017.
We had the opportunity to pool our design thinking and aesthetics and apply them to a real-world problem in our local community and the greater care system, in hopes of potentially having our designs be implemented in a new proposed dementia care facility to be built in Vancouver, BC. It was a great opportunity to get the conversation started and the architects of the new proposed facility asked for our contact details after we pitched our system design.
While we were ideating initial concepts, we tried to keep in mind what those suffering from dementia had to offer the public, rather than focusing on the limitations of their disease. In what aspects could the community benefit from the way their mind works? We needed to identify qualities these individuals possess. How could they get involved? What could they offer? Rather than approaching it from a “problem” perspective.
PROBLEM SPACE
How could we positively impact the lives of:
1. Those living with dementia
2. The lives of their caregivers
3. The lives of their families
- Residents are understimulated
- Residents lack a sense of responsibility or agency over their environments and how their time is spent
- Limited mobility can deter a resident from actively participating in much programming
- Escalated rates of depression, anxiety, agitation
Throughout our research, a couple key findings emerged again and again. It was sensory-rich activities that had the most positive effects on dementia sufferers. It was especially evident that two things that had the most positive impact on patients suffering from dementia were sound/music and access to/involvement with green space, usually in the form of gardening, but even simply walks in an accessible green space or garden.
In the early stages of our dementia project, we were focused on exploring the relationship between sounds and scent to help stimulate and recall memory in someone suffering from dementia. Music has been proven to be an effective therapy in helping those suffering from dementia jog their memories. It’s been shown to completely awaken and enliven the resident, as is evident in the film Alive Inside, which I previously had watched, but then rewatched again as research. We understood the powerful associations to memory that smell could have. A comforting scent could trigger a cherished memory and positive response in a patient. Aromatherapy also had the ability to calm and soothe a distressed patient or aid with sleep and other daily routines. I know for myself at least, it’s an exceptionally strong cue that evokes memories, take for example the smell of wood burning, which takes me back to memories of times spent camping and at the cabin.
For our initial co-creation dry run we decided to focus on both senses: hearing/sound and smelling/scent. We developed an activity booklet of questions as well as choosing an evocative list of music to elicit a variety of responses. We conducted three separate activities with our participants in class. One was to gauge their experience with music and colour, the second one was to get their response to various scents and thirdly to find out what their ideal space or environment was like via the activity booklet.
After our initial co-creation activities, we took our results back to the drawing board. Deciding what we could further develop or if we were meant to go in a different direction altogether. The initial ideas of plants and green space continued to resonate with us so we explored these ideas further via another brainstorming session.
We quickly realized we were designing an entire systematic approach to greenifying the care home and enriching these often stark environments, with the focus on empowering residents. In realizing that we were tackling a systems design project we had ideas of affiliates we could collaborate with to really leverage our ideas and make our dreams of implementation a reality. One of our most promising partnership opportunities was with Sue from Inside Green, a local plant-gifting start-up. We organized a coffee date with her and talked about the possibilities of implementing her existing program in the care home as one of the aspects of our green systems design.
Inside Green
"Inside Green is a Vancouver-based project that connects people through the stewardship and gifting of houseplants, thus greening our city from inside spaces out. This is a community effort, so we’ll send participants care-giving tips and ‘how to’ material when it comes time to propagate their plant. We want to help our Stewards create a next generation of plants they can gift to others, thus creating new Stewards who will add their plants to the site, and so on and so forth – contributing to a map that shows the genealogy of plants spreading across the city!"
I come from a Marketing/Business background, and I feel that bleeds into the way I approach a design project. Since we decided on delivering a complicated green systems design, with multiple variables and partnerships, I thought it would be best to brand ourselves as a green consultancy business. From this point I started to ideate potential names for our projects, this would come in handy when branding our slides and collateral material and being recognized and remembered by our panel.
These are some photos of our final collateral material, a plant care guide booklet we designed, featuring our own original nature photography, as well as plants and stamped bags graciously donated by Sue from Inside Green, minus the one pothos here, which I donated from my own collection. I thought it was important to leave each member of the panel with a plant to emphasize the connection to nature we all innately desire to have (biophilia) and the joy of being able to take care of your own plant and watch it grow!
Plant care guidebook that would introduce a resident to their new plant and teach them how to care for it with simplified instructions
Posters that we designed that were to be included in the plant care package. The calming photos of nature were meant to inspire and relax residents and allow them to decorate their space
NEXT STEPS
There were three structural elements of the final green space system, including engaging a plant propagation project local to Vancouver (Inside Green), building resident prioritized community gardens and inviting various students of horticultural programs in Vancouver to aid in maintenance and further embed the community within the home.
The presentation was very successful, and we were contacted after to put together a summary of the project so that it could be presented further as a consideration for development for the new care home being built in Vancouver.
FINAL PRESENTATION
