LIV well with Dementia

Around 1.6 million Australians are involved in caring for someone living with dementia, with over 70% of people living with dementia (PLWD) remaining in the community. We designed LIV in conjunction with carers and PLWD to provide a simple to use, centralised tool to help them remain living at home longer. We needed to make sure their support community was trusted and safe for them to engage with; we needed to be relevant and useful with recommended resources and suppliers, we needed to help reduce social isolation - while also being simple, easy and enjoyable to use.

Based on what co-design identified, we settled on four key elements: local services; private forums to share with people like; an invitation-only social network, invited by the carer or PLWD; the ability to share and ask for help within this ‘care circle’. The app includes journaling and messaging, forums for carers to talk privately to each other (and for PLWD to do the same) as well as sharing with the public. Services include community and commercial services. The app is available on mobile, tablet and as a web-app - meaning people can get local services and keep in touch from anywhere.

Extensive co-design sessions included over 30 carers and PLWD over varying ages and abilities. We partnered with several key dementia support organisations, including Dementia Australia, Multicultural Communities of the Illawarra and Community Care Northern Beaches. The key was to make this something that people could use intuitively. The early feedback from PLWD users includes “This app will fix everything. It brings it all together in a really useful manner” and “All my needs in one place”. Dr Dana Bradford, Australian eHealth Research Centre at CSIRO says “This is exactly what people living with dementia have been asking for”.

- Magic password: PLWD hate passwords, but keeping the app secure is important. We email a link to them to make it easy - Shared devices: Many PLWD and carers share a single device. We make it easy to swap who is using the app - Forums: carers often say their best support is from other carers. We have two forums each for PLWD, carers and the community - Local services: on mobile, GPS finds local services. So even when people are away, LIV can still help. - Community of care: a PLWD or carer can invite friends, family and neighbours to join them, including family members far away who still want to know what is going on - Easy feedback: a button on every page make it easy to reach out for support - Tasks: people are uncomfortable asking for help. LIV makes it easy to send a request out to the broader care circle, letting people respond in their own time. Most task requests are for simple things (a pint of milk, sitting with someone, a lift to the doctors etc) - Services: includes health, community services eg transport and dementia friendly locations, and commercial services include NDIS services, nursing and home help (gardening, cleaning).