Application to help care for elderly parents with memory loss

Jennifer Rozbruch remembers the time when her grandmother started gradually losing her memory due to dementia. In 2013, when Rozbruch finished his master's degree in design at the School of Visual Arts in New York, her mother almost had to take care of her.

Rozbruch said: 'My mother can communicate with her in ways that no one else can do, for example by songs from a young age, childhood stories, and reviewing photos of the day. old".

She added: 'I have witnessed her changes when doing these things. At first she was almost unable to talk and didn't have any short-term memory, but then she could sing the rest of a song herself. "

This is an application that can arrange important songs, images, and stories throughout one's life.

With his SVA thesis (Smart Virtual Assistant), Jennifer Rozbruch used the mother's unique method to design applications.

Her design is called GreyMatters , a phone application that can organize important songs, images, and stories throughout a person's life through a format that is easy to use.

With this application, family members can post pictures, sounds, and memories for family members with Alzheimer's disease or dementia.

The application also allows access to cultural data from the previous decades - such as Duke Ellington music or videos of Katharine Heburn - and places them in familiar settings.

The streamlined timelines of the GreyMatters application can help people with dementia recall memories. At the same time, the nursing staff can know what to do when caring for the elderly, thus reducing the stress of the job.

The application has more than 8,000 downloads, and will soon be upgraded. Currently all content on the application must be posted and arranged via a tablet or phone.

In the near future, Jenifer will release a new feature that helps any family member add content to the timeline, and can interact with each other through this application.

The application of GreyMatters helps people with dementia can recall memories.

If siblings live in different cities, they can all add content to the GreyMatters app for parents to see. Rozbruch said: 'For a long time people have used photo albums to keep memories. GreyMatters application helps people to record everything, review memories with loved ones more easily ".

Not only for demented families, the idea of ​​Jenifer Rozbruch also helps to bond feelings among family members by remembering memories together - which can be because of busy life. they forgot.

GreyMatters won the World Change Ideas competition in 2018 application category, awarded by Fast Company.