Dementia Dog started as a Glasgow School of Art service design project commissioned by Alzheimer Scotland. It obtained funding from the Scottish Executive and the Design Council through the Living Well with Dementia Challenge. It began as a collaboration between Alzheimer Scotland, The Glasgow School of Art, Dogs for the Disabled and Guide Dogs UK, bringing together the teams’ expertise in dementia care and provision of trained assistance dogs. Following the successful completion of the research stage and having secured additional funding, Dementia Dog embarked on its first small-scale pilot scheme, based at the Guide Dogs for the Blind training facility in Forfar, Angus. The idea is that assistance dogs provide at least three assistive tasks to their partner, these can include support for daily living routines (such as waking, eating, getting exercise and going to the toilet), reminders (such as prompts to take medicine, drink fluids and other user identified regular tasks), or soft support issues (such as companionship and acting as an icebreaker in social situations).
Nesta Impact Investments have as their mission to support life changing innovations that tackle the major challenges faced by older people, children and communities in the UK.
In April 2015 they published a paper called Remember Me which discusses the social and economic impacts of dementia and how impact investment could help. The PDF is available to download.
“We believe that social ventures can play an important role in helping to fill the gaps in provision and support that currently exist. Instead of focusing on medical advancements and the more macro issues, our paper explores the role that entrepreneurs, social innovators and investors can play in helping to address the wider challenges of the condition.
The paper looks at the role of these groups in four areas:
- Support with navigating the system
- Support with independent living
- Access to non-pharmacological therapy
- Support for carers