Social Sense Ltd, in partnership with Wirral based Hitch Marketing, has been chosen to build a ground-breaking platform to measure the real time ‘Lived Experience’ of people with dementia.

The platform will be used to record information about a wide range of factors that affect quality of life for people who are living with dementia.

The contract was awarded following a lengthy consultation with professionals and people living with dementia and is part of a combined mission for Greater Manchester to be the ‘best place in the UK for people living with dementia’. 

The project is being funded by Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) as part of the wider devolution programme commencing in 2016. It is being delivered through Dementia United, a programme within the partnership that is working to engage and involve Greater Manchester localities, carers and people living with dementia.  

What form the platform will take has not yet been decided, although it is likely to be a digital tool and app that allows recording of information.

Its purpose is to bring together all the experiences that impact a person living with dementia, such as:

–        their daily experiences at home or work, whether living independently or in a cared-for environment

–        their interaction with family, friends and carers

–        their interaction with health and care professionals

–        their experience of interaction with society, from using public transport to going shopping

It may also be used to provide useful local information, such as inclusive activities, and a planner that could act as a prompt for key events.

The platform will be used by the person living with dementia, their family, friends, carers and health and care professionals.

Organisations which support people who live with dementia will be able to use the tool to evaluate the effectiveness of changes they make. Using this evidence should be used to introduce further change and improvements to the quality of life for people with dementia.

GMHSCP director of strategy and system development, and senior lead for dementia, Warren Heppolette explains:

“We are committing to this project to understand what it’s like to live with dementia in Greater Manchester, what makes a good day and what gets in the way.

“The intelligence we can gather from this platform will help us to achieve our ambition for Greater Manchester to be the best place to live with dementia.”

In addition to delivering a measurement tool, the aspiration of the partners is to quickly translate many of the features into tools that can measurably improve lives – for example making sure that local activities are more visible, accessible and friendly.

Social Sense Managing Director Gary Lovatt explains:

“Our aim is to create something that focusses not on the dementia, but the person and those around them. We want to capture everything that is positive, for example friendships and achievements alongside thoughts, feelings and concerns.

“Through this platform and partnership, we have a real opportunity to better understand and improve experiences across Greater Manchester and create new ways for people to connect with others and be heard.”

Hitch Marketing are leading on the technical elements of the project, drawing on years of experience of building mobile apps to drive social change.

Gary Wooten, CEO of Hitch says:

“It is a really exciting opportunity for us to be part of something so innovative that has never been done before.

“We have an opportunity to positively change lives and we’re looking forward to working together on this to deliver the best possible impact.”

For anyone looking to get involved in this project in Greater Manchester, please email [email protected] or call 0161 216 4080.

For those interested outside of Greater Manchester email [email protected]