“Bridge” – an intergenerational approach with prototypes games for young people and people with dementia

People with dementia (PwD) are often excluded from intergenerational social activities due to stigmatization. The generation gap is constantly widening while young people are losing their interest to participate in volunteering actions concerning elderly people. The Erasmus+ funded “Bridge” program is a 3 year pan-European initiative that aims to develop a set of prototypes Serious Games (SGs) (physical, digital or phygital) acting on cognitive and behavioral symptoms of dementia, involving also younger and older people. The project’s consortium consists of 5 partners; the Panhellenic Federation of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (Greece) – applicant leading organization, Asociatia Habilitas – Centru de Resursesi Formare Profesionala (Romania), Anziani e non soloSocietà Cooperativa Sociale (Italy), Challedu (Greece), University of Western Macedonia (Greece).

In Greece, Italy and Romania, 24 PwD co-designed and played several games in collaboration with 6 game-designers, 16 healthcare professionals, 7 caregivers and 21 young volunteers. After the implementation of the workshops 8 prototypes games were created by the participants and have been further developed by the consortium. Four digital: Next destination, Flea market, Find the word, Bird-watching and four physical: Emotions, The directors, Blooming flowers, Speciatite. A second Implementation of Workshops will be organized in each country in order to figure out these results and test the effectiveness of the games. The Bridge web-platform (https://projectbridge.eu/), containing MOOCs on the methodology of the game-creation workshops and the final 8 selected prototypes games will be the final result.

For more information www.projectbridge.eu

Magda Tsolaki, Neuropsychiatric Professor, Director of the 1st Department of Neurology Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Chair of Panhellenic Federation of Alzheimer’s Disease