The use of interactive tables in promoting wellbeing in specific user groups

Dementia is estimated to affect 50 million people worldwide [1]. A significant proportion of residents in residential homes are people with moderate to severe dementia [2, 3]. Apathy amongst them is a major issue [3-5]. Tovertafel is an in-teractive table that was designed to reduce apathy and to facilitate play for people with moderate to severe dementia [6].

This mixed methods study has three aims; firstly to explore the Tovertafels’ impact upon the wellbeing of people with moderate to severe dementia in a residential care home from the professional carers’ perspective; secondly to explore the impact of Tovertafel on the wellbeing of these carers; and thirdly to explore whether Tovertafel has any impact on the quality and quantity of visits by the family of the residents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 carers and The Work Related Quality of Life Scale (WRQoL) [7] was used to explore carers’ perspective of the extent to which Tovertafel improved their own wellbeing and the quality of their working life.

Some key findings indicate that visiting families interacted more with their loved-one when they are using the Tovertafel. Residents do use Tovertafel when it is switched on, but many needed to be initially prompted by staff. Tovertafel did have a positive impact upon residents’ mood during the time it was used and a short time after. Tovertafel also had an impact on improving interaction between carers and residents when it was on. Tovertafel’s most successful games are reported as being the bubbles and puzzles, and carers also stressed the importance of identifying an appropriate location for the Tovertafel, to enable optimum usage.