Compassionate Design—HUGs on Prescription

There is a growing need for well-designed innovative products and services for people affected by dementia. Governments and charities are offering a range of business support to encourage the development of commercial products to address this need. This paper describes how HUG, an output from LAUGH and LAUGH EMPOWERED academic dementia research in the UK, has been successfully translated into a commercial product via accelerator start-up business funding. HUG is being used in care homes and hospitals in the UK to reduce anxiety and improve the quality of life of people living with advanced dementia. Compassionate Design methodology has underpinned this work. Personhood, sensory stimulation, and connection with others have been used as three key principles to ensure that the design meets the needs of people living with dementia in the later stages of the disease. Loving kindness for the person living with dementia (product user) has been central to the design process and involvement of people affected by dementia at various stages of the disease has been crucial to the success of the product. The studies described in this paper provide an example of how an output from academic research has been successfully translated into a commercial product that is now improving the lives of people living with dementia.