Creative dementia network

Digital tools for positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of people with dementia.

Overview

Drug treatments for dementia remain very limited, but there’s growing evidence that non-drug therapies can make life with dementia better, if not longer. Prior research in Latin America demonstrated that online creative expression therapies had a positive impact on participants’ mental health and wellbeing. This project will deliver these positive impacts to 50 people living with dementia in the UK. It will ensure these impacts are replicable at scale by working with participants, industry partners and inclusive design specialists to co-create an accessible toolkit for the design and delivery of future digital health and wellbeing therapies for people with dementia. The project is led by Stephen Fay in the School of Literature and Languages in partnership with David Frohlich of Digital World Research Centre. It will employ a part-time Research Associate to lead the engagement activities.

The project is funded by the University of Surrey AHRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) and runs from November 2023 for 9 months.