CONSOLIDATE: Co-designing Opportunities for Needs-led Solutions that Optimise Living Independently With Dementia by Accessible Technology Enhancement

People living with dementia want to live independently in the home of their choosing for as long as possible. Though there are characteristic symptoms associated with dementia, people living with dementia are individuals. Each person: represents a diverse range of needs; has aspects of their life and daily function they value and wish to maintain; experiences distinct barriers and enablers to making lifestyle and behavioural choices to support their independence. Each person’s priorities and needs also change over time. If those changes are not anticipated, people living with dementia are more likely to need additional assistance and lose their independence. New and existing technologies provide opportunities to support people living with dementia. These take many forms, from sensors that monitor and assess activities and behaviours, to virtual assistants that promote social, mental and physical stimulation and healthy behaviours, to robots assisting with physical functions and social engagement. The development of solutions must, however, be led by the needs of the user. For example, sensor technology can be integrated into living spaces to monitor for safety and security, but people living with dementia want more than to be managed. They want technology to work for them by supporting continued engagement. A focus on sensing and monitoring for safety alone, albeit important, would not allow people living with dementia to support their skills as those become impaired, or be enabled to maintain and even enhance their existing functions. Our NetworkPlus therefore addresses three broad aims: Enhance: How can technology enable people living with dementia to increase their social, mental and physical engagement so that their functional capacities are maintained or improved? Support: How can technology anticipate changing needs and provide assistance for declining or lost skills, without hastening that decline? Manage: As dementia progresses, how can technology seamlessly integrate into people’s home and living environments to support the management of their daily functions, symptoms and safety? These intersecting aims sit along the continuum of dementia progression. For those in the early stages, we will consider how technology can enhance function, mindful of future needs that increasingly require support and management. Although solutions need to be individually relevant, deploying at scale will provide significant benefits for society and the economy. If dementia progression could be slowed by up to 30% over a three-year period, it is estimated quality of life could be maintained, with a reduction in time and cost of care of 580 hours and £3,000, respectively, per person. Three key issues are central to our aims: Equality: Solutions need to be accessible to all, not only those with existing resources. Our network will target socioeconomic disadvantage and geographical remoteness to reduce inequality; Responsibility: Solutions need to be guided by responsible technology principles and robust ethical considerations; Sustainability: Solutions need to be deployed at scale in economically and environmentally sustainable ways. Our NetworkPlus, CONSOLIDATE, has been shaped by people living with dementia and their networks of formal and informal care. This is central to our proposed activities and will grow further, including leadership from national-level third sector organisations. CONSOLIDATE’s objective is that people living with dementia set the challenges to be addressed that reflect what they value most for independence, before co-designing solutions that harness technologies to enable continued opportunities for enhancing, supporting and managing their functional capacities.