CURATE-D project aimed to develop a game-based methodology and educational materials to help cultural venue staff and professional caregivers to improve their skills in supporting people with dementia (pwD) in cultural experiences.Cultural venues can play a pivotal role in fostering dementia friendly communities. The key objectives of the project were to: -promote social inclusion and equal accessibility to culture of pwD -adapt vocational education training of professionals in cultural fields to today needs that includes the transformation of cultural experiences to be inclusive and accessible to pwD -adapt vocational education training of professional carers to the needs of their patients (pwD) who can benefit a lot by getting involved in cultural activities -create an innovative game-based educational methodology and toolkit for VET education of professionals in the cultural fields and caring of pwD.Partners conducted a survey on professionals’ needs, existing inclusion and accessibility knowledge, preferred training techniques, and found good practices & existing game-based VET training materials and dementia care ensuring they contribute to the innovation in VET
The number of people with dementia (pwD) is rising, affecting over 50 million people worldwide (10 million in Europe), a figure projected to triple by 2050. The EU accessibility agenda is gaining importance in the fields of leisure, culture and tourism. However, it has focused on motor disabilities, overlooking audiences with non visible disabilities like dementia. Studies show that removing participation barriers significantly improves the well-being of pwD and their carers through cultural experiences. Dementia-friendly communities are among the most promising approaches towards creating inclusive and accessible life choices and experiences for pwD, including cultural activities, eliminating existing barriers. Barriers include intrapersonal (psychological), interpersonal (family and friends), structural (external factors), intrinsic (health-related, dependency on carers), environmental (societal attitudes,stigma), and interactive (situational) ones. Our project aimed to enhance skills of cultural venue staff and professional caregivers to support pwD in cultural experiences who got trained by innovative game-based educational material within the VET framework.