Minnesbild (Recollection) is a Memory like, ergonomic mean for persons that suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, with adjustable difficulty levels.
The game is inclusive and adaptable to the individual due to the possibility of changeing the images in the block box.
Because of the variation of symptoms between different persons with Alzheimer disease and the differences between the personalities and lives that have been lived it is important to choose the images so they match the players interests.
About 100 000 peoples in Sweden suffers from Alzheimer’s today. One of them is my grandpa and like him most of the people that suffers from Alzheimer disease are over 65 years old. Because of this they also have other age-related ailments. Reduced strength and motor skills in the hands are common problems and so are reduced contrast sight. This is the reason for the shape of the block boxes. They needed to be tangible, not to heavy and large enough to hold a image visible for the user.
I contacted the Reumatikerförbundet (Rheumatic coalition) to try out the block boxes, if they were easy enough to handle even if you don’t have fully functional hands. You can watch one of the testing persons in the video below.
I also got to try the game at Ekdungens Dagverksamhet (a daily occupation for people whit Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Sweden). To vary the difficulty, you can either play with the images turned up so the players can see them and then try to pair them together, this is not as easy as it sounds, or you can do it a bit harder and turn the block boxes so that the images are facing down. Now the players can flip two boxes when it is their turn. If they match each other the player got a pair. If they don’t match you flip them back again and the turn goes to the next player. It is important that the players don’t get pressured during the game and that they get the right required amount of help they need. Always start with the images turn up so the players can see them, then try to play one round. If this is to easy you can turn the block boxes so the images are facing down. I recommend to always start the game like this even if the player was able to play the game with the images facing down yesterday because the symptoms can vary from a good day to a bad.
