As a product designer, I’ve always admired the emotional attachment humans can have with a product. Whether that be the joy a stuffed animal can bring a child or how an apple corer can bring efficiency into their mother's life whilst preparing their snack, products have the capability to make one’s life experience better. When embarking on this year-long journey, I knew I wanted to create something that could potentially do this. Watching my grandfather suffer from severe dementia and all of his memories slowly fade, I thought about ways to ease the pain of watching a loved one deteriorate for not only my grandfather, but my grandmother who is his main caregiver and the rest of our family.
Innovative Caregiving Relief is a book service for those caring for loved ones with dementia. The toll of caregiving and grieving the loved one you once knew can cause secondary, detrimental side-effects to the caregiver’s mental health, heightened by the lack of services offered by the medical design world. This service is designed to alleviate some of the stresses of caregiving, preserve memories, and create opportunities for other family members to help and provide support.
