2015.06.29
A pattern language compiling tips for "living better with dementia," created by Associate Professor Takashi Iba and the Iba Laboratory at the Faculty of Policy Management, has been published as a book.
Last year, the Iba Laboratory created "Words for a Journey: Hints for Living Better with Dementia," a pattern language that compiles practical tips for living better with dementia. It describes the specific actions that people with dementia, their families, and those around them can take to live a better life while accepting the condition. Through this, the project aims to widely introduce and share the "positive and practical tips" of people who live vibrant lives even with dementia, enabling more people to live more positively and creating an opportunity to promote social dialogue about living with the condition.
Comment from Associate Professor Takashi Iba
It is said that the number of people in Japan aged 65 and over, including those with mild cognitive impairment, now exceeds 8 million. This calculates to about one in four people aged 65 and over, and about one in fifteen of the entire Japanese population. Against this backdrop, this book compiles "positive and practical tips" for "living better with dementia" after a diagnosis in an easily shareable format.
In creating this book, students from the Iba Laboratory and I interviewed people with dementia and their families, from which we extracted and verbalized their positive tips. We created everything ourselves with the students, not only the content and text but also the illustrations, cover design, and page layout.
When we presented the booklet we created at events such as the Open Research Forum (ORF) 2014 held last November, we received a great number of inquiries and a significant response from people with dementia and their families. This led to the current publication.
This book was created based on the concept and method of "pattern language." Pattern language is a method that was actually conceived in the field of architecture and developed in the field of software development. At the Iba Laboratory, we have been conducting research to apply this pattern language method to human activities. "Words for a Journey" is the very first outcome of applying pattern language to the welfare field anywhere in the world.
I would be very happy if the publication of "Words for a Journey" as a book allows it to reach more people across the country, leading to more positive feelings and smiles.
● "Words for a Journey: Hints for Living Better with Dementia" (Edited by Takashi Iba and Makoto Okada; Authored by the Takashi Iba Laboratory, Keio University, and the Dementia Friendly Japan Initiative; Maruzen Publishing, 2015)