Little red riding hood
Once upon a time there was…. the development of a serious game: Little Red Riding Hood
There are currently over 300.000 people in the Netherlands taking care of someone with dementia living at home. Half of them combine these caretaking responsibilities with a job and/or care for children. Becoming a caregiver often begins after the diagnosis of dementia has been made, and often a light case of dementia is already present at that time.
The goal of Little Red Riding Hood is to support “learning to live with dementia” after the diagnosis in a playful and safe manner, with the help of a serious game that can be played on the iPad or tablet. Key characters are Grandmother, Little Red Riding Hood, the lumberjack and of course the wolf. Without being childish, important decisions are presented in Grandmother’s little house in an environment that feels safe and familiar.
With Little Red Riding Hood, we want to spark an organic conversation between caregivers and people with dementia in order to discuss difficult subjects without it causing direct conflicts in their personal situation. This conversation is about subjects such as taking care of oneself and living safely at home. Being aware of each other’s points of view on these important subjects can help to together find a new balance more quickly in a new situation with new care questions.
Need for support
When your partner or parent is diagnosed with dementia, a lot more changes than you might realise at first. A lot also remains the same. Slowly but surely, however, things do start to change. At times, this can demand a lot from you. The majority of all new caregivers has a need for some type of support in dealing with this new situation. In Little Red Riding Hood, a serious game developed together with elderly and caregivers, a number of difficult subjects will be discussed in various subtle or in-depth ways. Inside the forest cabin, Little Red and Grandmother will be faced with activities that elderly themselves have chosen as the most important themes. The goal of Little Red is to, in a safe way in a familiar environment, give more insight into how life and interpersonal communication is affected by dementia. Additionally, through Little Red Riding Hood, we want to hand caregivers tools they can use to, together with the person with dementia, face the future and anticipate what’s to come to the best of their abilities. In the development of Little Red Riding Hood, there was close collaboration with elderly with and without dementia, with caregivers, dementia case managers, and with care professionals. The information is based on scientific insights stemming from previous research by the Universitair Centrum Ouderengeneeskunde (University Center for Geriatric Medicine).
Final version
The final version of Little Red Riding Hood is now ready. Little Red Riding Hood is available in the Apple App Store under the name "Grootmoeders Huisje". Now that Little Red Riding Hood has been developed, it is important to investigate what Little Red Riding Hood delivers. The research includes which themes are discussed after using Little Red Riding Hood and what the use of the app brings the user. To this end, the researchers are looking for elderly people and their loved ones who want to participate in the study. You can find more information about this at the Little Red Riding Hood website.
Project budget €492,650, with €229,650 PPS surcharge being used.