nature and the principles of animal therapy to enrich
the living environment for residents of the care home
by building up a remote connection with the outdoors
through tangible interaction.
In the following we introduce first, related works
about relivant therapies and design projects. Next, we
describe the design, implementation and initial
evaluation results of the installation in detail. Finaly,
we will discuss the insights and future work of this
project.
2 RELATED WORK
2.1 Relevant Therapy for Dementia
Therapies for dementia can be divided in to two main
camps. The first aims to stagnate the progression of
the decrease in cognitive function utilizing
pharmaceuticals, arts/creativity tactile experiences,
and brain training, which exercises the mind to keep
it active (Alzheimer’s Association, 2015). The
second, focuses on remedying negative emotional
side effects of dementia such as anxiety or aggression,
by improving residents’ mood, through nostalgia
therapy, snoezeling rooms, doll therapy, music
therapy or animal therapy. In this paper, we focus on
the later.
Nostalgia therapy encourages residences to
recall memories and communicate verbally through
engaging with objects from the past (Dempsey,
2012). However, this therapy is controversial due to
the risk of undesired painful memories being recalled.
Doll therapy is considered to be helpful in
relieving a resident’s sense of helplessness by
offering the individual a chance to provide care and
feel a sense of purpose. Doll therapy is also
controversial because seeing a senior loved one play
with dolls can leave their family feeling
uncomfortable. Meanwhile, some care homes
encourage residents to complete simple chores, to
support a resident’s sense of self and contribution
(Miller, 2013). However, this can be taxing for the
already busy care provides.
The snoezeling rooms, often a separate room in
the care home, provide stimulating yet soothing
environment. These spaces are meant to relax
residents and by stimulating their senses seem to have
a positive effect on the mood of many residents
(Baker, 1997).
Animal therapy also addresses resident’s mood
through and provides for a joyful experience.
Residents respond positively to animals while petting
is tactile and allows for sensory stimulation
(Nordgren, 2014). As people with dementia
eventually lose the ability to care for pets, residential
dementia facilities enlist external organisations to
bring common pets and farm animals to the care
homes for animal therapy sessions. Unfortunately,
though interacting with animals is widely enjoyed by
residents, the cost of keeping or transporting animals
and the extra burden on care providers to facilitate
these visits, are often prohibitive. As a result, these
happy petting sessions only occur a few times a year.
2.2 Related Designs for Dementia
Over the years, there have been many products and
much research aiming to improve the quality of life
and create a supportive environment for people with
dementia in care facilities.
One of the major direction is design exploration
on sensory stimulation through textiles and tactile
interaction to help recall pleasurable memories,
engage people with specific activities and facilitate
communication. The Dementia apron is a highly
personalized textile outer garment, which is created
from textiles relating to the resident’s personal
background. When worn by the resident, it can
provide tactile stimulation as the resident touch the
familiar textiles (Treadaway, 2015). Tactile Dialogs
pillow uses E-textiles to provide its users with a
tactile experience to facilitate communication
between residents and their loved ones through touch.
This interaction is simple yet creates an implicit,
sensory experience (ten Bho
̈
mer, 2013). Another
pillow product, the Discover Dementia Pillow,
allows people with dementia to play different pieces
of music by simply touching the various patches of
different textiles on the pillow (Brankaert, 2015).
Another direction for design is to take a more
holistic approach and look into the environment of the
care home, providing immersive experience with
relaxation and pleasure while reducing confusion and
wondering. Typical examples include the interactive
lighting and sound art installation designed for elderly
with dementia to explore, play and relax (Gu, 2013),
as well as the interactive wall embedded in care
home’s living room, presenting photos from family
and residents’ familiar places, in order to draw
residents’ attention to facilitate communication and
reduce wandering (Robben, 2012). In addition, the
soothing effect of nature is also taken into
consideration by many researchers. Grinde and Patil
argued in their research on biophilia that “viewing
natural landscapes provides psychological and health
benefits, including a reduction in stress”, and
interacting with nature seems to have “positive effects