The number of Singaporean elderly with Dementia increased by 42.3% to 73,918 in 2023, according to a survey conducted by Well-Being of the Singapore Elderly (WiSE). Today, 1 in 11 Singaporeans are susceptible to Dementia.
However, despite the hike in Dementia cases, Singaporeans are still uncomfortable talking about it — whether it’s conversations on early prevention, advanced care planning, diagnosis or treatments.
Thus, my final year project team and I decided to help the families in our local community start these conversations on Dementia Care Planning, in a more fun and simple manner.
More Than A Memory started out with an informative social media campaign on Instagram, where we shared stories of Dementia, Dementia Informative posts, and even tips on improving communication with one's family members.
We then started our physical roadshows in various locations around Singapore, including Sentosa, Marina Bay Sands, Bugis and Punggol. These roadshows encouraged young adults to write a "Letter To Remember", a simple three question letter that would allow young adults to recollect precious memories experienced with their families. Across all 4 roadshows, we were able to collect over 300 letters from young adults!
You might be thinking: "What do we do with these letters once they're written?". After collecting the letters back from our participants, we mailed them out — after a month — with a separate informational sheet that linked each question in the letter to a prompt that young adults could ask their parents.
At the end of the day, I'm thankful we got a chance to work on this, because life with Dementia, takes away More Than A Memory. <3
Creating our 'Comic Strips' content pillar was arguably my favorite part of the creative aspect of More Than A Memory. Since we wanted these comic strips to resonate and evoke strong emotions within viewers, I decided to head to an online source with an abundance of personal stories — Reddit. It was heartwarming to find stories from Singaporeans about their journey with a family member afflicted by Dementia. I learnt a lot about how real people dealt with Dementia, seeing their loved ones change over time and even advice from one person to another. It was especially inspiring to see how the online community understood and supported each other through their Dementia crises.
As the team's secretary, I had the important role of ensuring all our administrative work and deadlines were met. This was my first experience taking on an administrative role full time (on top of the regular design work as well!) and it sure was tiring. I did enjoy the organisational aspect of the role, but was quickly burnt out by the sheer amount of work and effort I had to put in to ensure this project was a success. Over time, I was, however, able to make my workflows more efficient with good time management, planning, and even the help of certain tools such as Trello (i managed to work out a Trello to telegram integration, so trello updates are sent to a Telegram channel, for FREE BTW!). It was tough work, but I don't regret any of it, as it ensured the success of our campaign. (as kelly clarkson once said, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, facts.)
The number of Singaporean elderly with Dementia increased by 42.3% to 73,918 in 2023, according to a survey conducted by Well-Being of the Singapore Elderly (WiSE). Today, 1 in 11 Singaporeans are susceptible to Dementia.
However, despite the hike in Dementia cases, Singaporeans are still uncomfortable talking about it — whether it’s conversations on early prevention, advanced care planning, diagnosis or treatments.
Thus, my final year project team and I decided to help the families in our local community start these conversations on Dementia Care Planning, in a more fun and simple manner.
More Than A Memory started out with an informative social media campaign on Instagram, where we shared stories of Dementia, Dementia Informative posts, and even tips on improving communication with one's family members.
We then started our physical roadshows in various locations around Singapore, including Sentosa, Marina Bay Sands, Bugis and Punggol. These roadshows encouraged young adults to write a "Letter To Remember", a simple three question letter that would allow young adults to recollect precious memories experienced with their families. Across all 4 roadshows, we were able to collect over 300 letters from young adults!
You might be thinking: "What do we do with these letters once they're written?". After collecting the letters back from our participants, we mailed them out — after a month — with a separate informational sheet that linked each question in the letter to a prompt that young adults could ask their parents.
At the end of the day, I'm thankful we got a chance to work on this, because life with Dementia, takes away More Than A Memory. <3
Creating our 'Comic Strips' content pillar was arguably my favorite part of the creative aspect of More Than A Memory. Since we wanted these comic strips to resonate and evoke strong emotions within viewers, I decided to head to an online source with an abundance of personal stories — Reddit. It was heartwarming to find stories from Singaporeans about their journey with a family member afflicted by Dementia. I learnt a lot about how real people dealt with Dementia, seeing their loved ones change over time and even advice from one person to another. It was especially inspiring to see how the online community understood and supported each other through their Dementia crises.
As the team's secretary, I had the important role of ensuring all our administrative work and deadlines were met. This was my first experience taking on an administrative role full time (on top of the regular design work as well!) and it sure was tiring. I did enjoy the organisational aspect of the role, but was quickly burnt out by the sheer amount of work and effort I had to put in to ensure this project was a success. Over time, I was, however, able to make my workflows more efficient with good time management, planning, and even the help of certain tools such as Trello (i managed to work out a Trello to telegram integration, so trello updates are sent to a Telegram channel, for FREE BTW!). It was tough work, but I don't regret any of it, as it ensured the success of our campaign. (as kelly clarkson once said, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, facts.)