The game was developed by Focus Games Ltd as part of a research initiative by Dr Gary Mitchell, Dr Gillian Carter and Professor Christine Brown Wilson from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen’s University Belfast.

The wider study investigated public perceptions of dementia and attitudes towards people living with dementia. The game was designed to help improve knowledge and perceptions of dementia.

The game, funded by the Dementia Development Services Trust, was co-designed with people living with dementia who are members of Dementia NI.

Background

It is possible to live well with dementia, and we know that many people with dementia are living active lives with the support of families, friends and communities. As the population ages, and the risk of developing dementia increases, there is a pressing need to ensure that generations understand what dementia is, and how to support people in the community living with dementia.

For example, younger people are now experiencing dementia in their family with limited support due to a lack of understanding and/or negative perceptions.  Carers of people living with dementia can also feel hesitant to go out together due to a perceived lack of understanding of the public. This may result in isolation due to being unable to maintain meaningful activities and social engagement.

Whilst this is slowly being addressed by initiatives such as Dementia Friendly Communities (DFCs) (Alzheimer’s Society, 2018), more is needed to enable people living with dementia to receive the respect and support they need to continue to live active and healthy lives in the community.

Digital gaming or ‘gamification’ is becoming an increasingly common way to educate/train employees in both business and health sectors (Jagoda, 2017). Gamification is also used to educate healthcare professionals and the public about a range of healthcare topics (Carter et al, 2009, Carter et al, 2010, Poultney et al. 2016).

How was the game developed?

Development of the game was a collaborative effort. The project team included seven people living with dementia, three dementia advocates from local charity Dementia NI and six undergraduate nursing students from Queen’s University Belfast. They met together five times throughout 2019 to co-design the game.  Firstly, they identified the most significant misconceptions about dementia and how these could be addressed in the game.  This was supported by findings from focus-groups held previously with people living with dementia.  The key themes of the game were felt to be around Emphasising Capability – NOT Disability, and Normalising Dementia (Mitchell et al. 2020).

The game format was then co-designed with Focus Games Ltd, and this included the digital interface, colours and animations used throughout the game.

Results from the evaluation

Over 1,000 students engaged with the game over a  four week period with 500 completing the Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire (ADQ) before and after playing the game. The findings from this study demonstrated that after playing this game there was a statistically significant improvement (p< 0.000) across all domains of the questionnaire showing more optimistic perceptions of the abilities and the future of people with dementia and what might be achieved by them; recognising people with dementia as unique individuals with the same value as anyone else, and overall demonstrating a more positive attitude towards people with dementia. This improvement did not change even with those who have had previous exposure to knowing someone with dementia (p<0.000).

To date, the dementia awareness game has been played over 3,500 times. A ‘serious’ digital game is a creative way to challenge people’s thinking in areas such as care homes and hospitals where there is high turnover of staff making it challenging to maintain dementia training. In particular, this game may engage younger adults in higher education who may be supporting people with dementia at home or work within service industries who otherwise may not receive education or training in dementia. Further to this, the game could be used as a continuing professional development tool across healthcare providers and care homes.

“Research conducted by Queen’s University Belfast shows that after playing the game, a person’s attitudes to people living with dementia improves! This statistically significant information is being reviewed by an international journal” Dr Gillian Carter, Queen’s University Belfast.

The game is free to play, without any registration or login. It will work on any device and only takes a few minutes to play. Access the Dementia game here.

The post Dementia: changing attitudes with a game. first appeared on Ludogogy.

There’s a fourth wall in L&D that we believe blocks engagement and stifles change.

If you want to improve performance, you must help staff to make changes. Training is at the heart of this support. But most training treats staff as passive targets for content and methodologies. They’re just expected to soak up the information from a screen. There’s no engagement, enjoyment, curiosity, or sense of responsibility and so nothing changes. There’s no practical outcome. It’s a dead-end.

You can break the fourth wall with board games that give learners direct control of their learning. Games that encourage a series of structured discussions between the players. Every individual has valuable knowledge and experience so don’t waste it, allow staff learn from each other.

Games can actively engage staff with the issues and with each other. They have fun exploring ideas, sharing experiences and finding new ways to work. Games will give them the knowledge, commitment and the confidence they need to make changes.

Educational games are being used in private companies, hospitals, schools and universities all over the world to improve education, training and development. But did you realise that many of them were invented at the frontline, by someone just like you?

Practitioners, educators and academics come to us with games they’ve developed at their kitchen table, or with ideas for games, and we then help them to create a professional product. We then sell those games and share the profit with the inventors (usually the individual’s employer).

Most of our partners have never developed a game before and they tell us that this co-creation is an interesting and enjoyable process. We’ve developed a simple process for working with partners that ensures developing the game doesn’t interfere with their day job. Our partners tell us it’s a real thrill when the first copy of their game is delivered. It’s even more satisfying when positive feedback begins to arrive from colleagues who are using their game.

Here are a few examples of the people we’ve worked with and the games that were developed from those partnerships:

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board  – Gareth Pierce Jones, Infection Prevention and Control Nurse.

Gareth is passionate about using non-traditional teaching methods to help healthcare professionals to learn. Gareth created a board game to educate staff about C. difficile infections in a fun, alternative way.

“I played the game and I have to say it was brilliant fun and very educational. I recommend everybody takes on the challenge.” Gary Doherty, Chief Executive at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

 King’s College London – Rhiannon Eley and Lucy Tyler

Rhiannon and Lucy are qualified nurses and adult nursing lecturers who have mentored and facilitated learning throughout their nursing careers and continue to support student learning in their role as Clinical Teachers. Rhiannon and Lucy wanted to develop a game that would help nurses and nursing students to practice and improve their prioritisation skills.

“We developed this board game as we have found that students often lack the confidence and opportunity to practice and reflect upon skills like prioritisation and decision making in a busy clinical environment but are expected to qualify with these skills. We hope that through learning about and developing these skills in a fun way, it is assisting nurses of the future to be safe and effective practitioners.” – Rhiannon and Lucy

Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Gill Hart, Clinical Nurse Educator.

Gill Hart teaches renal biology to nurses and students. To improve that training Gill developed a board game.

“As a trust we actively encourage our staff to come forward with innovative ideas on how to improve our service, and the Renal Game is a perfect example of this. It will certainly help our students and staff to engage in training, and hopefully it will become a vital addition to learning in other healthcare organisations throughout the UK.” Maurya Cushlow, Executive Chief Nurse at The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust  –Joan Pons Laplana
When Joan was Transformation Nurse at James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust he suggested that we develop a simple myth busting digital game to persuade staff to get the seasonal flu vaccination. The game that we created with Joan has now been used by over 30 NHS trusts to help increase uptake of the seasonal flu vaccination among staff members.

“Strangely addictive. A great way to learn facts about flu.” Emergency Department Clinical Lead.

The post Co-creation with frontline staff first appeared on Ludogogy.