Touching dementia – tactile sensing and stimulation to reduce anxiety and distress in people with dementia

An aging population that is physically able but mentally decaying is a huge problem shared by Japan and Europe. In Japan 25% of persons over 65 have dementia or the preliminary stages of dementia, rising to 7 million by 2025. In the UK an estimated 1 million people will have dementia by 2021. This a such an problem that the Japanese Orange Plan (The Five-Year Plan for Promotion of Dementia Measures, 2012) was revised in 2015.

One characteristic of dementia that has been little studied and exploited is the shift from visio-auditory senses to the more primative sense of touch. The opportunity therefore presents to investigate how touch can be used to comfort dementia sufferers and reduce their distress.

This project will investigate how touch can communicate affective information and reassurance in order to reduce distress in dementia patients.