2023 marks a special 10-year milestone since the start of the Dementia Dog project, when the world’s first ever dementia assistance dog was placed with a family in Arbroath. This is therefore an opportune time to reflect on how one inspirational idea has translated into a life changing service for families in Scotland living with dementia.
The concept of Dementia Dog was one of humble beginnings – a group of Glasgow School of Art students sat around a table, generating fresh ideas for service design that could help a person live well with dementia. We know dogs are creatures of habit, so the idea of training one to support a structured daily routine was highly plausible. The fact this had never been done before immediately highlighted a gap in service provision that Alzheimer Scotland was well placed to address. With the help of funding from the Design Council, the concept was propelled into an exciting world first pilot, cementing a fantastic charity partnership with Dogs for Good to establish the thriving collaboration that continues to underpin the Dementia Dog project to this day.
As with all Alzheimer Scotland’s areas of innovation, we seek to co-design pilot programmes collaboratively with families living with dementia, with their first-hand insights, feedback and experiences helping us shape meaningful and relevant services that are developed with, and not for families. The first ‘pioneer’ families to receive assistance dogs have been pivotal in helping us shape the Dementia Dog services we offer today. However, this project has been somewhat unique in its co-design journey, where it is not only the families who have helped shape our services – but also the dogs themselves. We believe dogs are incredible creatures – intuitive, intelligent, loving and loyal. By tapping into these natural attributes and equipping the dog with added taskwork skills – for instance, reminding someone to take their medication – we have seen the powerful partnership that evolves, in turn helping their human family feel more joyful, independent, socially connected and able to cope better. What we didn’t quite anticipate, however, is how much the dogs would teach us what they are capable of learning – in turn evolving the potential of what we can achieve through Dementia Dog. Examples range from practical help the dogs can provide – e.g., rolling out an exercise mat to motivate someone to do daily physio - to responding to verbal cues through a mobile phone screen, enabling us to open up a whole new world of online dog therapy support for people with dementia.
Over the past decade, the project has grown considerably, taking a person-centred approach to establish a range of dog support services that can flex to the changing needs of families we support. This includes our assistance dogs, community dogs, family dog workshops and online doggy bingo sessions where trained volunteers and their ‘canine callers’ bring fun and laughter into the homes of hundreds of people with dementia and their carers throughout Scotland. As we celebrate this special ten year milestone, and begin training up the next generation of Dementia Dogs, we wonder what will they teach us next? You can find out more about Dementia Dog and our services here.
