00:00We felt that the community was a very important part in making sure that
00:03we create a very dementia-friendly kind of environment.
00:06So it's not just the physical environment, but also like the software of it.
00:16Hi An Ning, thank you so much for coming down today.
00:21I understand that you're an architecturally trained researcher
00:23and you worked on this very interesting project
00:25with the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
00:28Can you tell me about that?
00:29So the project is called the Dementia-Friendly Neighbourhood Project
00:32and it was done as a study because with the increasing rates of
00:37people projected to get diagnosed with dementia,
00:40we kind of needed to figure out how to make our public estate more dementia-friendly.
00:45Yeah, because I understand that our longevity is now projected to extend to 100 years old
00:51and people who are above 85 have up to a 30% likelihood of getting dementia, right?
00:56It is kind of with this in mind and the fact that we have a very dense
01:00and a very, very tightly packed kind of a housing condition.
01:04How do we actually design our neighbourhood estates
01:07so that it becomes more friendly for people living with dementia
01:11as well as their caregivers so that they can continue to live in place
01:15and live a fulfilling life even after they've been diagnosed
01:18without the need to sort of pluck them out from their existing homes
01:22and move them into a completely separate and foreign environment.
01:25I see.
01:25Which we also do not have the resources for.
01:28We don't have the space.
01:29Yeah, we don't have the space or the resources to sort of just funnel that into like specific
01:34dementia complete care kind of facilities that they do have overseas.
01:38Since this is a project by the Singapore University of Technology and Design,
01:42can you tell me about some of these design elements that you found can actually help
01:46with making a neighbourhood dementia-friendly?
01:48We call it the plus minus multiply divide principle.
01:51For a lot of the older people, right, the way that they navigate their environment is actually true.
01:55Mental map anchors.
01:57So they'll be like, oh, this place beside the playground by the coffee shop from the car park.
02:03So there's a lot of this kind of landmarks, mental landmarks that they have in their neighbourhood.
02:07So what we want to make sure is that when we create spaces for them,
02:11or we intervene in the physical design of spaces,
02:15and then all that space becomes a landmark for you.
02:18So if you're ever lost in your environment,
02:20hopefully that becomes one of the things that jump out at you and you kind of recall it.
02:24Minus would actually be the more of a reductionist approach.
02:28There's a lot of visual input.
02:30There's a lot of things that we're seeing, sounds we're hearing,
02:32especially in our very population-dense area.
02:35So when we do interventions, we also want to recommend that you try to keep things simple,
02:40and then you do not try to over-stimulate and create
02:44too many, many, many things for them to be distracted by.
02:47What about multiply?
02:48We want to make sure that the effect of whatever we do, right,
02:51is multiplied onto the caregiver.
02:53When we design that kind of play equipment in our final prototype,
02:57we also encourage that the caregivers engage in the games.
03:00It's not like I send you to the daycare,
03:03and then I sit outside and wait for one hour.
03:06And what about divide?
03:08Okay, so divide is this principle whereby
03:11we understand that sometimes things can get a little bit daunting.
03:15Understanding that the huge change in lifestyles is actually very jarring for them,
03:20we realise that whatever we want to introduce to them,
03:24we need to make sure that it can be absorbed into their lives incrementally.
03:28The other things that I would say that design intervention can do
03:32for hardware, for physical spaces,
03:34would also be to create spaces that are integrated with other parts of the society.
03:39So it's not like you need to travel really out of place,
03:41but just within your neighbourhood area,
03:43they find a space that people can go to for inquiries about dementia,
03:47they can go for inquiries about caregiver support.
03:50They might have a localised gym,
03:52they might have a cafe in the same space,
03:53so that different, different people from the neighbourhood
03:56can come together to use that space.
03:58So it doesn't become an isolated,
04:00like a, this place is only for people with dementia,
04:02this is, that space is just for them.
04:04You try to create more opportunities for the community to interact
04:07and to build an understanding of each other.
04:10What is your vision for the future of dementia-friendly neighbourhoods?
04:14I would say that communities require time to be built.
04:19Yes, so dementia-friendly community
04:20is something that needs to happen quite organically over time.
04:25Yes, so if we want to build that,
04:27I think we have to start early.
04:29And we are starting already
04:31because we have seen a lot of this kind of initiatives
04:33popping up all over Singapore.
04:34So what I really hope is that all this will come together
04:37into something that's scalable.
04:39It needs to be a must-have in our estates.
04:42By also starting with ourselves to create that community of supporting each other.
04:46Community is made out of all of us.
04:48Yes.
04:48Well said.
04:50Thank you very much, Ani.
04:51Thank you, no problem.
04:53Okay, Claire, any other questions?
04:55Oh, hi!
04:56Okay, thank you so much!
04:58Thank you!
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