Cognitive rehabilitation through games

With age, it becomes more common to suffer memory problems, cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, constituting one of the main concerns of those facing ageing, as well as an area to be taken into consideration from the perspective of geriatric healthcare.

Therefore, not only is diagnosis and continued improvement in treatment fundamental, but also the prevention of these illnesses. Consequently, Kwido and Cognitiv@ Memory Unit  are currently designing a game so that patients at Neurocognitive Rehabilitation Centres will be able to carry out therapies through the use of entertaining exercises, supervised by professionals from the field of geriatrics, such as therapists and psychologists.

Cognitiv@ Memory Unit has various centres across Spain, aimed at people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Their non-pharmacological therapeutic treatments are administered by professionals, whose objective is to delay cognitive deterioration and maintain cognitive faculties by strengthening all areas of the brain, such as memory, speech, comprehension, reasoning, attention and concentration, etc.

Thanks to Kwido, in addition to sharing users’ progress with relatives or streamlining information management, this game will allow centres to carry out much more useful therapies, automatically interpret results, reduce professionals’ workloads, allow users to access therapies even from home, and improve service quality. As a result, both those who suffer cognitive impairment and those affected by brain damage associated with health problems, such as strokes or neurodegenerative diseases, have a new ally to help them improve their state of health, and in a fun way!

The main objective of so-called “serious games” is to educate and even improve health; which is the case at hand. Over the last few years, the usefulness of these games has increased substantially thanks to the development of videogames, which have become so prevalent with increasingly popular new electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

The collaboration between Kwido and Cognitiv@ not only signals the launch of a specific application for people with memory problems, but it also presents a learning opportunity between the two organizations which, without a doubt, will show results in the short term. Yet another step forward in enhancing Kwido, the advanced telecare system for the elderly.