BRIDGE

Background Over the past decades, life expectancy is constantly increasing, resulting not only in a greater number of adults over 65 and 80 years old, but also in an increased number of older adults with age-related impairments on physical or cognitive levels. In 2018, 50 million people worldwide were diagnosed with dementia (Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2019). These numbers are expected to increase 281 per cent by 2050 and people living with dementia will be more than 150 million (ADI, 2020). There is an absence of intergenerational social activities involving People with dementia (PwD) and many times they are stigmatized and excluded from these activities. According to World Alzheimer Report (2019) “Around the world, we need to drive forward improvements in healthcare and social care, as well as eliminating the stigma around dementia and ensuring that PwD is included in society.”. Moreover, the generation gap is constantly widening as young people are losing their interest to participate in volunteering actions concerning elderly people. Young people could contribute significantly to fight against the stigma and the consequent loneliness and social exclusion of PwD, especially when engaged as volunteers in projects which challenge them, too. Serious games (SGs) are a well known non pharmaceutical practice for cognitive symptoms of dementia with Mild and Moderate Symptoms through stimulating these abilities of PwD. “SGs”, also called “training games” are games designed for a specific purpose other than pure fun. Moreover, it is proven that traditional boardgames could have a positive cognitive impact when being used with people in the mild and moderate stages of dementia. In addition, in the relevant literature review, health professionals and caregivers are searching for non pharmacological interventions to manage also the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. However, there is a lack of relevant approaches using SGs focusing on cognitive and behavioral symptoms of dementia. The Alzheimer Associations and other local services of European countries, as recognising all these trends and facts, have initiated campaigns to raise the awareness of general public. Thus, several European projects have been conducted to develop and include interventions based on the use of games to support larger numbers of PwD and their caregivers varying from web-based games as well as physical games and objects. One of these initiatives is the “Bridge” Erasmus+ Program. Its main objective is the creation of games (physical, digital or phygital) focusing on cognitive dysfunction and behavioral symptoms of dementia through various intergenerational workshops engaging younger and older people. “Bridge” project focuses on the creation of tailored content in SGs as a result of the collaborative work among healthcare professionals, members of the general public, university students, volunteers, PwD and game-designers. Thus, an intergenerational empathizing strategy is also created to increase awareness about dementia in members of the general public. Method A Methodology for the Co-Creation Workshops has been developed and implemented in the 3 countries of the consortium, Greece (Alzheimer Hellas), Italy (Anziani e non solo) and Romania (Asociatia Habilitas). This step was following by the development of working games prototypes and finalization of 8 selected games. The second implementation of Workshops was organized in each country in order to figure out these results. Results 24 PwD co-designed and played several games in collaboration with 6 game-designers, 16 healthcare professionals, 7 caregivers, and 21 young volunteers in the first Co-Creation Workshops. 11 prototypes of the games have been developed and the project team decided which of them can be the final 8 games for the Bridge platform. The final 8 prototypes games are the Next destination, Flea market, Find the word, Bird-watching, Emotions, The directors, Blooming flowers, Speciatite (https://projectbridge.eu/the-serious-game/) and have been tested during a series of workshops in October 2020, organized in different countries. The testing phase involved 47 people: 23 PwD, 17 health professionals, 4 caregivers and 3 young volunteers. The Bridge web-platform (http://bridgecourses.uowm.gr/), containing MOOCs on the methodology of the Game-Creation Workshops and the final 8 selected SGs is the final result. Conclusion The intergenerational workshops, in which PwD and young people create and use SGs, can narrow the gap between generations, decrease the stigma of dementia and promote civic participation of young people by developing the role of volunteering for social inclusion. This intervention and the final result of this program can create awareness and motivation about the importance and possibilities of SGs as a tool for improving the quality of life of older people and their families and improve cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions of PwD.