Making the lives of dementia sufferers easier, every day!

Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading care and research charity for people with dementia and those that care for them. One of the Alzheimer’s Society Group objectives is to improve the lives of the 465,000 people living with dementia and they are doing this with the help of a Knowledge Transfer project with LSBU.

“Our project is to develop, test and launch a range of assistive technology products that will make the lives of dementia suffers and their carers easier.  Our new selection of daily living aids range from simple devices such as jar openers to more complex items such as devices that orient people regarding the time of the day,” explains Associate Carla Madrilejo.  

In addition to expanding their product range, Alzheimer’s are also creating a Product Guidelines Tool so that in the future Alzheimer’s will be able to test and recommend products to manufacture and suppliers to make sure they are suitable for people with dementia. 

“We applied for this project with LSBU because this was a new area for us and we wanted to take an evidence based approach to developing these new products, we did not just want to be another supplier,” Susan Sharp, CEO of Alzheimer’s Trading Ltd. “The next part of this project involves having a licensing agreement and kite mark scheme that will enable companies that want to use our name, logo etc to pay us a licence fee. The kite mark scheme means we can say products have been ‘assessed, recommended or tested’ by Alzheimer’s Society.” 

“In the next five years I see Alzheimer’s as leaders in Assistive Technology. The project with LSBU will leave us with a legacy of research and knowledge that we can use to take this organisation forward,” says Susan Sharp, CEO of Alzheimer’s Trading Ltd. 

Walkiria Moura, Occupational Therapy academic at LSBU says “It is an amazing and inspiring learning experience for all of us; we are acquiring business know-how from our partners, while providing them with a wide range of expertise and support. We aim to deliver the expected outcomes and, in parallel, assist our business partner to further their skills and expertise in relation to assistive technology and dementia conditions.”