Design for Dementia - Helen Hamlyn Centre - Royal College of Art

DINING
REDUCED COMPLEXITY
TABLEWARE TO REDUCE COMPLEXITY
As dementia progresses, some people can
begin to lose their eating skills or find it
increasingly difficult to concentrate on the
task of eating. They can become confused
by too many pieces of tableware or multiple
items of cutlery at their place setting. A
common strategy is to simplify the amount of
utensils by providing just a plate and spoon
with pureed or diced food that can be eaten
without the need to be cut up by the resident.
This has proved to be very successful as it
simplifies the process of eating but still allows
a person to feed themselves.
However, one of the difficulties that
emerges from this strategy is that residents,
who are now only using one piece of cutlery,
push the food off the side of the plate when
they are trying to pick it up. To address this,
the plate contains a high lip in its profile that
helps to push the food onto the spoon as a
person tries to scoop it up. It turns the motion
that usually results in food being spilt onto
the table into a way of improving eating skills.
The range includes a bowl that is designed
to allow people to pick it up and drink
from it. The rims have been extended to
create a vessel that can easily be held with
two hands. It aims to further reduce the
complexity of eating and support people with
limited dexterity.
One of the most disliked pieces of
tableware commonly used in care homes is
a care cup because it is extremely similar in
appearance to a baby cup. This item is given to
residents with reduced dexterity who can then
grip both sides of the cup without burning
their hands as they might with a ceramic mug.
The three most problematic features that
reinforce its association with a baby product
include its nippled lid, its two handles and its
construction from plastic.
To challenge this design a cup formed from
a single piece of ceramic is proposed. The
mould has a double skin with an air-filled
cavity between the inside and outside surfaces
allowing a person to grip the cup without
risk of burning themselves. The inner layer is
sloped to reduce the amount of movement
that a person’s neck has to make when drinking.
The lid minimises the association to
the nipple of a baby cup by elongating the
form around the rim.
Plate with high-lipped profile helps push food onto the spoon
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