Carpe Diem Dementia Village

This case centres around dementia care and concerns the development of a ‘dementia village’ in one of Norway’s largest municipalities. The project is based on inspiration from the Dutch dementia village, the Hogweyk, and was initiated by politicians in the municipality after a visit to the Hogweyk in 2013. The new dementia care facilities are scheduled to open by the fall of 2020.

The village will have room for 158 residents suffering from dementia, with 8 residents living together in 17 smaller buildings with surrounding gardens. Inside the village there will be access to different facilities, such as a small shop, café, hairdresser and gym, and indoor and outdoor spaces for social gatherings and activities.

The idea behind the dementia village is to create an environment where residents can be free to move around in a safe environment, with more access to activities and recreation. This is contrasted with the more traditional nursing homes, which are often criticized for being too focused on the somatic aspects of care, which limits room for socializing and meaningful activities. By creating a more ‘homely’ atmosphere both inside and out, the municipality is seeking to provide dementia care services that enable seniors to continue living their life as before, as much as possible.

Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Various actors in the local community become relevant stakeholders in this case, since one of the aims is to create more active links between the community and the elderly care services. Private businesses, civil society (NGOs and volunteers) and other public sector actors are invited in to provide inputs in the ‘co-creation’ of the village at the ideation and planning stages of the process. Moreover, local stakeholders are invited to ‘co-create’ the services when the new care facilities open. This can be volunteers taking part in arranging activities, schools or nurseries setting up performances, or private businesses providing services such as hairdressing, cafés etc. The main beneficiaries of the case are senior citizens suffering from dementia and their next of kin.

Co-creation process

The municipality has placed emphasis on co-creating the new services with potential residents, their next of kin, and other local stakeholders. To co-create the new services, the municipality is drawing on inspiration from service design and co-design. The design processes are mainly being carried out ‘in-house’ and facilitated by a development team with experience and training in facilitating innovation processes.

Digital Transformation Process

We have not focused on the technological aspects of the dementia village in the case study. However, introduction of new technology will be important for the development and operation of the new services.

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

There are two ways of understanding ‘results’ in the context of this case. First, the main results of the dementia village project are linked to the construction of the new care facilities. Second, we may also highlight the results of the co-creation processes undertaken to create new solutions in this new service setting. These processes have generated a range of ideas for new solutions that will shape the new services. In this case, it is too early to assess outcomes and impact of the dementia village and the various new solutions within the new care facilities because it has not yet opened. We understand outcome and impact as the effects of new solutions which may be measured in various ways.

Challenges & Bottlenecks

There are some obvious challenges involved in co-creating dementia care. When the end users have cognitive impairment, and may even lack the ability to communicate verbally, co-creation and co-design is difficult. Finally, the challenges and constraints of service design in this context largely concern the complexity of the project and in providing high-quality services in dementia care. Dealing with dementia is inherently challenging.

Transferability & Replicability

The dementia village concept is already spreading across countries and communities (I.e. from the Netherlands to Norway) and across municipalities in Norway. However, the concept may be implemented with more or less focus on involvement and co-creation. We find that there are potential for inspiration, learning and transferability in the way Bærum has aimed to co-create the new dementia services with users and other stakeholders.

Success Factors

Not relevant.

Lessons learned

One of the central lessons learned from this case is that co-creation of innovations with services users is possible also when service users suffer from cognitive impairments.