Turnaround: exploring care relations in dementia through design

People with dementia often experience a lack of social engagement after moving from the home environment into long-term care. Professional caregivers aim to build social relations with residents in dementia care homes to empower and socially include them during everyday care. However, the natural imbalance between the caregiver and the cared-for positions the person with dementia in a passive role, making it difficult for them to initiate and build relations with caregivers. In this paper, we present ‘Turnaround’ as a design exploration into care relations and the potential role of design to support these relations. Turnaround is a musical interface to facilitate collaborative acts of music-making. Our preliminary results reveal how the role of resident and caregiver shifted towards equal partnership during the exploration and interaction with Turnaround. Furthermore, we argue that technologies should foster partnerships in care activities by facilitating shared forms of expression and reinforcement of agency.