Exploring how Colour and Environment can effect people living with Dementia?

The Nature of my investigation is to express how Dementia can be affected through the environment of the care home. I have used research from Journals and academic materials as well as personal experience to explore how colour and environment can affect someone living with Dementia and raise awareness to the daily experience through sculptures and collages representing my research.

Questions I have used to Guide my Project are:

– How do I use my craft to raise awareness and explore research and experience around Dementia Care?

– How do I make something that can explore what’s potentially wrong with Dementia Care and attitudes towards it and why this is important?

My craft has developed from Prop Making where I worked to a specific brief with practical props, into exploring how I can raise awareness of issues and start to explore solutions using my craft to communicate. I have worked as a carer for almost 3 years and it has become a big influence in my life and now my future career. I want to use my craft to improve my role as a Dementia Carer as I branch into Art Therapy within my Care Home. My craft has changed from being primarily a Prop Maker because it is more experimental and will continue to develop as I research and start to work with the residents in my care home. The process is the focus rather than making for a functional end goal. Therefore, I have found it important to display my working sketchbook. The research and experiments are just as important as the objects produced and processing what matters to focus my craft. The focus of my work has already developed a lot so far and it will continue to expand as post-exhibition, the pieces will be able to be donated to the care home. They can be used directly with residents in sensory areas of the home and then the apron being used by me and other carers in assisting the residents.

This project matters because it is estimated that there are currently 900,000 people living with Dementia in the UK and is projected to reach around 1.6 Million towards 2040. It was also found that 70% of people in Care Homes have Dementia or memory problems.  This raises the importance of not just helping the people living with Dementia, but also addressing the attitudes and awareness by others affected such as family, carers etc.