The Need

How can we help those dealing with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)?
How can we help their carers? 

People with dementia, due to the ongoing decline in their mental abilities, need proper care at each stage. Their carers feel they have a great responsibility in their hands. Therefore, dementia affects not only the person dealing with it, but the caregivers, too.

Tools exist: In recent years many non-pharmaceutical interventions have been developed and used for people with dementia, aimed at strengthening/keeping their mental abilities and treating behavioral disorders. These are simple and fun exercises that anyone can apply with proper guidance.

These interventions, combined with pharmaceutical therapy, help people with dementia to remain functional and maintain a good quality of life for a longer period of time.

 However, these non-pharmaceutical interventions are not widely known, especially to those who are living far from dementia support centers.

Τhe Solution

Developing an educational application for family caregivers and health professionals in order to provide knowledge about simple techniques of non-pharmaceutical interventions will provide valuable insight and tools.

The smartphone application for the project "diAnoia" is useful for practicing the mental skills of people dealing with:

• Mild Cognitive Impairment with significant deficits
• Early-stages of dementia

For this reason:

 We created an educational application

The application is available for android and iOS smartphones / tablets and allows carers and health professionals to learn simple techniques of non-pharmaceutical interventions and use them to help people with dementia (at home or at non-specialized structures in the field of dementia, such as public structures for the elderly), when they cannot attend a Day Center for people with dementia for various reasons.

 We add supportive material

We explain the interventions, give clear instructions, examples, printing material and videos, in order to make the learning process  easier and allow for daily application. 

 We give incentives for action

We incorporate ways to remind caregivers to use mental exercises and encourage people with dementia to engage in beneficial activities.

 We offer the application for free

For the first time in Greece, such an application is being developed to disseminate valuable knowledge and expertise, to everyone. Not only is the application being developed in close collaboration with end-users, it is also offered for free. 

 We share the code under open source licenses

The code is available under open source licences at GitHub, so that everyone can further develop it.

Who can use it

The application is addressed to:

• Carers of people dealing with dementia (family and professional caregivers) 
• Health professionals working in the field of dementia

And to:

• scientists/institutions/clinics who deal with dementia

The project DiAnoia:

• Caregivers, health professionals and institutions have now a free useful tool for everyday use 
• People with dementia can now enjance the quality of their everyday lives and their funcionality

Partners

The project was developed with the scientific diligence and in collaboration with the Athens Alzheimer. 

Funding

The project "DiAnoia" was implemented under the "Points of Support" program, which is co-funded by TIMA Charitable Foundation, John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, Hellenic Hope charity and Bodossakis Foundation. 

The iOS version has been funded by Alzheimer Athens.

Download

The first version of diAnoia is available for free for Android (in Greek). It is suitable for smartphones and tablets.

Results

 Impact: 3,000+ Downloads

• diAnoia is available for Android! (in Greek)
• Up to 3,000 people downloaded the app
• 60+ publications in the Press

Next Steps

The project “diAnoia” is only a small part of the strategic plan of SciFY for a overall dementia intervention, that we hope will change the field. Due to the close collaboration with Alzheimer Athens, we plan carefully but promptly our next steps.
We have already planned ways to help carers, people dealing with dementia, Institutions, Health professionals, in compliance with the National Action Plan for Dementia, through a series of interventions that complement one another and create a coherent whole.

Project ID

• Partners: Alzheimer Athens
• Duration: 03/2017-03/2018
• Funding: The project "DiAnoia" was implemented under the "Points of Support" program, which is co-funded by TIMA Charitable Foundation, John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, Hellenic Hope charity and Bodossakis Foundation. The iOS version has been funded by Alzheimer Athens.