A web-based educational program for digital communication support for people living with dementia, their significant others, and formal carers

People living with dementia will progressively be more challenged in communicating with other persons due to the fact that cognitive and linguistic functions are affected.

Research and development work on communicative support and in particular digital support for people living with dementia is very limited. In the FORTE supported program ”Living with dementia: Communication.

Relations, and cognition” one subprogram was dedicated to how ICT could be used as a resource for sustaining and developing communication in various contexts for people living with dementia, their significant others and formal staff.

Through participation in an EU-financed development project an application for communicative support for digital units (CIRCA). This app is connected to a large data base containing among other things pictures and videos.

In a large number of studies, we have shown how digital communicative support like CIRCA can be used in dementia care as well as in home environments.

It is these research results we want to use in order to make digital communicative support available in elder care, especially in dementia care.The aim of the project is to produce a web-based educational program about using digital communicative support for people living with dementia, to update the application CIRCA, and to give it a digital “home” freely available for municipal elder care, dementia care, as well as people living with dementia in their homes.

The web-based educational program will be produced together with Svenskt Demens Centrum with whom we previously produced a web-based program about communication and dementia.

The project will thus (i) update, CIRCA, (ii) make the legal framework for using CIRCA clear together with the financial support, (iii) produce a web-based program about digital communicative support for people living with dementia. This project will last for two full years.