How we are using technology to improve the lives of people living with dementia
EDIE - Educational Dementia Immersive Experience
Enabling EDIE interactive workshop
Continuing on from the highly successful Virtual Dementia ExperienceTM, Dementia Australia is proud to announce the launch of a new 3 hour workshop which uses EDIE, a virtual reality smartphone app.
Using Samsung Gear VR, this high quality virtual reality experience will enable participants to see the world through the eyes of a person living with dementia.The workshop will enhance your knowledge of dementia whilst exploring a supportive approach that enables Edie and his wife to live more confidently with dementia.
View and book the upcoming Enabling EDIETM workshops below
The multi-award winning Virtual Dementia Experience™ is an immersive, interactive virtual reality experience that invades the senses and takes people into the world of a person living with dementia, simulating thoughts, fears and challenges.
The Virtual Dementia Experience™ forms part of a two hour workshop and uses multi-sensory stimulation to demonstrate the effects of ageing and dementia, giving participants an appreciation of the issues confronting people with dementia. The process enables attendees to understand the environmental elements that are friendly or hostile, by allowing them to experience a home environment in the same way a person with dementia would. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their own approach to dementia support and to think about ways in which they can make their own environments more supportive.
It has been experienced by more than 3,000 people including professional and family carers, healthcare professionals, aged care executives, architects, community leaders and Victorian and Federal politicians. The response so far from participants has been remarkable. For some it is the first time they have realised some of the challenges faced by people living with dementia.
Award-winning technology only available at Alzheimer’s Australia Vic
View and book the upcoming Virtual Dementia ExperienceTM workshops below
If you’re interested in workshops for Family Carers, contact Robyn Rose
To improve the quality of life for a person living with dementia, activities should be planned that are not only engaging, but also empowering, explorative and encourage communication, and can be conducted in a safe and supportive environment. This is what The Virtual Forest™ program offers.
The Virtual Forest uses a gaming technology to create a sensory experience, utilising a large interactive screen, and is designed to immerse the user in a peaceful and enjoyable virtual environment for people living with dementia. The Virtual Forest creates a beautiful nature setting which is calming as well as engaging and enjoyable.
The Virtual Forest presents an expansive park-like virtual setting, with colourful flowers, trees and a river with a bridge. The seasons can change with a clap of the hands, and animals can appear and move around the scene with a wave of the hands. It is designed to give back some control to people living with dementia – it is their forest, and they can experiment with it and enjoy it. This is a deliberately personal experience, but one that can be shared with carers or other residents.
The Virtual Forest uses the Orbbec motion sensor to allow users to provide input with nothing more than a wave of their hands. This means they can use natural, easy motions to control interactive elements in the forest.
The Virtual Forest has a number of interactive elements for users to interact with:
Mother duck & ducklings
School of koi fish
Monarch butterfly
Dragonfly
Boat
Season change from autumn to spring
For technical support, call Jim Pyatt on 03 9816 5715 or email jim.pyatt@dementia.org.au
Screens/monitors are recommended to be as large as possible – preferably, home theatre setups with a projector or large screen.
| Sponsor |
|---|
|
| Major donors |
|---|
| BB and A Miller Foundation |
| Norman and Betty Lees |
| Grosvenor Foundation |
| Miss Ann Miller |
| Mr Brian Moore |
| Donors |
|---|
| Petrica Petrovich |
| Dr Tanya Petrovich |
| Ms Therese Caine |
| Ms Barbara Potter OAM |
| Mrs Patricia Warren Petch |
| Lions Club and Murrabit and District |
| Ms Kay Ehrenberg |
| Ms Lisa Romano |
| Ms Joanna Cosgriff |
| Ms Joan Hammonds |
| Ms Sarah James |
| Kirsty Hughes |
The Dementia-Friendly Home App
The Dementia-Friendly Home App in now available for tablets and mobile phones. Using interactive 3D game technology Unreal Engine, the app provides carers with ideas to make their home more accessible for people living with dementia.
With 70 per cent of people with dementia living in the community, the app enables the home to be made more dementia-friendly. This can allow the person to stay in their own home, enjoy their regular lifestyle activities and remain engaged with their community for longer.
The Dementia-Friendly Home App is available for iPad and iPhone through the App Store, or for Android tablets through the Google Play Store. It costs $2.99.
That’s less than a cup of coffee!
Click below do download the app for your device:
Based on ten Dementia Enabling Environment Principles, The Dementia-Friendly Home App recommends practical changes that prompt a carer to think about how the home can be changed in a way that may assist the person living with dementia. Many of the app suggestions are small, inexpensive ideas, such as placing labels with pictures on cupboard doors. More significant changes include installing motion sensors that turn lights on and off when people walk through the house and changing busily patterned wall or floor coverings.
The Dementia-Friendly Home App was developed through funding by the joint Commonwealth and State Government Home and Community Care program. The Deakin Software and Technology Innovation Laboratory (DSTIL) worked with Alzheimer’s Australia Vic to develop this technology.
PARO - Robotic Seal
PARO is an interactive robotic baby seal. This cuddly and responsive robot provides undemanding interactions and can deliver outcomes similar to animal-assisted therapy for people living with dementia.
PARO has been shown to have a positive psychological effect on people living with dementia, improving their relaxation and motivation. It can also improve the socialisation of patients with each other and with caregivers and family members.
Developed in Japan, PARO responds to touch, light, temperature, positioning, sound, and can even learn common words over time, such as its chosen name.
Alzheimer’s Australia Vic has 2 PARO seals available for hire for $25 per week (Monday – Friday); weekends are free if PARO is booked for consecutive weeks.
PARO must be picked up and returned from our Parkville office between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
For hire availability and bookings contact our Technology Support Administrator Jim Pyatt: dementialearningsupport@dementia.org.au or tel: 03 9816 5715
- Enabling EDIE™ Workshop
-
EDIE - Educational Dementia Immersive Experience
Enabling EDIE interactive workshop
Continuing on from the highly successful Virtual Dementia ExperienceTM, Dementia Australia is proud to announce the launch of a new 3 hour workshop which uses EDIE, a virtual reality smartphone app.
Using Samsung Gear VR, this high quality virtual reality experience will enable participants to see the world through the eyes of a person living with dementia.The workshop will enhance your knowledge of dementia whilst exploring a supportive approach that enables Edie and his wife to live more confidently with dementia.
If you are a health care professional and would like to enquire about booking an Enabling EDIETM workshop at your facility, please contact Suzanne McMeikin or Marie Norman.View and book the upcoming Enabling EDIETM workshops below
- Virtual Dementia Experience™
-
The multi-award winning Virtual Dementia Experience™ is an immersive, interactive virtual reality experience that invades the senses and takes people into the world of a person living with dementia, simulating thoughts, fears and challenges.
The Virtual Dementia Experience™ forms part of a two hour workshop and uses multi-sensory stimulation to demonstrate the effects of ageing and dementia, giving participants an appreciation of the issues confronting people with dementia. The process enables attendees to understand the environmental elements that are friendly or hostile, by allowing them to experience a home environment in the same way a person with dementia would. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their own approach to dementia support and to think about ways in which they can make their own environments more supportive.
It has been experienced by more than 3,000 people including professional and family carers, healthcare professionals, aged care executives, architects, community leaders and Victorian and Federal politicians. The response so far from participants has been remarkable. For some it is the first time they have realised some of the challenges faced by people living with dementia.
Award-winning technology only available at Alzheimer’s Australia Vic
“I had an 8 hour shift in the facility the next day and I was able to use the experience several times, in different ways, throughout the day. It was such an incredible feeling!”− Participant
View and book the upcoming Virtual Dementia ExperienceTM workshops below
If you are a health care professional and would like to enquire about booking the Virtual Dementia ExperienceTM workshop for your staff, please contact Suzanne McMeikin or Marie Norman.If you’re interested in workshops for Family Carers, contact Robyn Rose
- The Virtual Forest™
-
Meaningful engaging experiences are important for everyone; this does not change when someone develops dementia.
To improve the quality of life for a person living with dementia, activities should be planned that are not only engaging, but also empowering, explorative and encourage communication, and can be conducted in a safe and supportive environment. This is what The Virtual Forest™ program offers.
The Virtual Forest uses a gaming technology to create a sensory experience, utilising a large interactive screen, and is designed to immerse the user in a peaceful and enjoyable virtual environment for people living with dementia. The Virtual Forest creates a beautiful nature setting which is calming as well as engaging and enjoyable.
“It is happy and easy-going. I was captured by the forest, so ‘beautiful’! It recalled the experience with my family.”− Pearl
The Virtual Forest presents an expansive park-like virtual setting, with colourful flowers, trees and a river with a bridge. The seasons can change with a clap of the hands, and animals can appear and move around the scene with a wave of the hands. It is designed to give back some control to people living with dementia – it is their forest, and they can experiment with it and enjoy it. This is a deliberately personal experience, but one that can be shared with carers or other residents.The Virtual Forest uses the Orbbec motion sensor to allow users to provide input with nothing more than a wave of their hands. This means they can use natural, easy motions to control interactive elements in the forest.
The Virtual Forest has a number of interactive elements for users to interact with:Mother duck & ducklings
School of koi fish
Monarch butterfly
Dragonfly
Boat
Season change from autumn to springTo learn more about The Virtual Forest, contact our Customer Relations team, Centre for Dementia Learning on 03 9816 5708 or dementialearningsupport@dementia.org.au.For technical support, call Jim Pyatt on 03 9816 5715 or email jim.pyatt@dementia.org.au
Please note this is an intensive graphics game and therefore may not work on older computers or computers which do not meet the hardware requirements.Screens/monitors are recommended to be as large as possible – preferably, home theatre setups with a projector or large screen.
Sponsor
Major donors BB and A Miller Foundation Norman and Betty Lees Grosvenor Foundation Miss Ann Miller Mr Brian Moore Donors Petrica Petrovich Dr Tanya Petrovich Ms Therese Caine Ms Barbara Potter OAM Mrs Patricia Warren Petch Lions Club and Murrabit and District Ms Kay Ehrenberg Ms Lisa Romano Ms Joanna Cosgriff Ms Joan Hammonds Ms Sarah James Kirsty Hughes - Dementia-Friendly Home App
-
The Dementia-Friendly Home App
The Dementia-Friendly Home App in now available for tablets and mobile phones. Using interactive 3D game technology Unreal Engine, the app provides carers with ideas to make their home more accessible for people living with dementia.
With 70 per cent of people with dementia living in the community, the app enables the home to be made more dementia-friendly. This can allow the person to stay in their own home, enjoy their regular lifestyle activities and remain engaged with their community for longer.
The Dementia-Friendly Home App is available for iPad and iPhone through the App Store, or for Android tablets through the Google Play Store. It costs $2.99.
That’s less than a cup of coffee!
Click below do download the app for your device:
Based on ten Dementia Enabling Environment Principles, The Dementia-Friendly Home App recommends practical changes that prompt a carer to think about how the home can be changed in a way that may assist the person living with dementia. Many of the app suggestions are small, inexpensive ideas, such as placing labels with pictures on cupboard doors. More significant changes include installing motion sensors that turn lights on and off when people walk through the house and changing busily patterned wall or floor coverings.
The Dementia-Friendly Home App was developed through funding by the joint Commonwealth and State Government Home and Community Care program. The Deakin Software and Technology Innovation Laboratory (DSTIL) worked with Alzheimer’s Australia Vic to develop this technology.
- PARO Seal
-
PARO - Robotic Seal
PARO is an interactive robotic baby seal. This cuddly and responsive robot provides undemanding interactions and can deliver outcomes similar to animal-assisted therapy for people living with dementia.
PARO has been shown to have a positive psychological effect on people living with dementia, improving their relaxation and motivation. It can also improve the socialisation of patients with each other and with caregivers and family members.
Developed in Japan, PARO responds to touch, light, temperature, positioning, sound, and can even learn common words over time, such as its chosen name.
Alzheimer’s Australia Vic has 2 PARO seals available for hire for $25 per week (Monday – Friday); weekends are free if PARO is booked for consecutive weeks.
PARO must be picked up and returned from our Parkville office between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
For hire availability and bookings contact our Technology Support Administrator Jim Pyatt: dementialearningsupport@dementia.org.au or tel: 03 9816 5715
Exceptional Quality
Excellent use of technology in dementia learning
It recalled my memories