New solutions to make life better for carers of people with dementia and young people’s wellbeing
Many of us know the heartbreak of dementia – experiencing it ourselves or caring for someone with dementia. And we know we have a crisis in young people’s mental health and wellbeing. These are issues that affect many of our lives. So we’re super excited to be collaborating with Dr Miriam Silver, expert in the field of neurodevelopmental disorders to find innovative new solutions that will improve people’s lives.
Working in partnership, we’ve secured funding from Innovate UK - the UK’s national innovation agency. They support business growth in the UK by inspiring, involving and investing. They run the Design Foundations competition, which helps businesses to engage with stakeholders and customers to drive innovation. And in partnership with Dr Silver we’ve landed funding for two projects through this competition.
Firstly, we’ll be developing an updated approach to further adapt an existing diagnostics tool called BERRI for use in younger audiences. We know that it can be a long, hard and expensive journey for parents who have concerns about their child’s mental health or development. We’ll adapt the BERRI tool to support parents of younger children to understand their child’s needs before they tackle formal diagnoses. It will also support their care after diagnosis. We’ll make sure it’s fit for purpose through rigorous research, co-design, and user experience testing.
We’ll also be supporting the co-design and development of a new tool which will support the psychological wellbeing of people living with dementia. The tool will support both formal and unpaid carers to identify specific psychological and behavioural needs of the people they care for. This tool will help carers and their families to better understand why the people they care for behave as they do, creating more positive outcomes for people with dementia and their carers. We’ll be combining Dr Silver's insights from years of research into the needs of older adults in residential settings with Hitch’s coproduction and design expertise to create a new tool that works for its users.
We really believe this is behaviour change at its best – bringing together lived experience, clinical expertise, behaviour science and the latest technology to change lives.
Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months, or reach out to Hitch now.