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Kingston student develops puzzles for Alzheimer’s sufferers

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Written by John Ellul

Friday, 27 March 2009 18:19

An enterprising Kingston University student has sparked the interest of local businesses and care homes with healthcare puzzles developed for a class project.

Ben Atkinson-Willes, 21, was set the task last September for his BA Product Design course and decided to dedicate himself to long-term healthcare problems, developing jigsaw puzzles for those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Students had a choice of ten categories for the assignment, and Mr Atkinson-Willes was eager to focus on Alzheimer’s care since he already had family experience of the disease.

“My grandpa has had Alzheimer’s for 12 years and that’s why I chose this project. I already had some insight into it. For my research I started off working with him, shadowing him and his carers. Some people worked in groups but I worked solo because it was kind of personal.”

As well as shadowing his grandfather’s carers, Ben developed the games with healthcare experts Edwards Malachy and Hilary Dalke at the University and then set about testing the puzzles in four London-based care homes.

To expand production of the puzzles further Ben applied to the University’s entrepreneurial bursary fund and was awarded £5,000. Ben said the grant has helped pay for the manufacture of the puzzles, and the first run of 80 will be ready in two weeks time.

John Lewis has already expressed their interest in stocking the product, and Ben is optimistic about the puzzles chances of success:

“I had a meeting with John Lewis on Tuesday and it went really well, they sound really interested. They want me to get some credibility from, for instance, the Alzheimer's Society, and build up a reputation. It's quite small scale at the moment but hopefully numbers will increase, especially since John Lewis liked the product.”

While eager to see the puzzles provide a solution for Alzheimer’s sufferers, Ben admits that it was a challenge balancing the marketing of the product with his final year studies:

“It has taken up a lot of time. I do have a lot of other projects to do but this is going to be included in my degree and the initial project was only four weeks long. I've been developing the idea through the year since then.”

He now intends to take a year out to concentrate on the games before going to the Royal College of Art to study MA Product Design. To have a closer look at Ben’s designs visit his website, www.benspuzzles.com

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Author of this article: John Ellul

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