From “Cure” to “Take Care”: A Design Interdisciplinary Approach in the Care of Dementia

The actual medical model of dementia care is focused on impairments and lost capabilities; considering these features as the focus of care makes hard to aim at enhancing patients’ well-being. Accordingly, the non-pharmacological care approach naturally suggests the transition from the concept of "Cure", meant as sedating behavioral disturbances, to the wider context of "Taking Care", focused on the validation of some peculiarities of the disease (i.e. wandering, repetitive gestures, etc.), in order to design devices that offer the possibility to vent this urgencies. From the perspective of design discipline this approach completely shifts the focus towards considering not only ergonomic aspects, but also anthropological, emotional and relational ones. Thus, in the framework of dementia care, it becomes necessary to understand how the environment could actively encourage pleasurable behaviours that enable patients to release stress. This means to consider spatial design for dementia not only linked to architecture, but moreover to the design of “activators of well-being” independent from the building, focused on enhancing the patients’ well-being. Based on these theoretical premises, this exploratory paper describes methods and approach adopted in GRACE_Lab, an interdisciplinary Lab. established in a day-care centre in Milan, for the development of environmental solutions for dementia care. The outcomes of this study are the result of a synergic collaboration between carers at all levels; from family caregivers to medical professionals, and designers/researchers.