Visual biography as a wellbeing tool for later life. Narrative approaches for transitions in healthcare

Abstract

Each of us is aging. The number of elderly people is rapidly increasing, straining healthcare systems and impacting wellbeing and holistic geriatric care procedures. During my healthcare assistant work in elderly homes in Basel, I often found myself in situations where resident biographic information was not available to me. Lack of appropriate tools and biographical information blocked me from using moments between the daily care tasks to have meaningful conversations or activity with residents, leaving them bored and passive. Biographies benefit both residents and workers through enhanced understanding and empathy to achieve better person-centred care. This Master's thesis explores formats of generating autobiographies. I obtained a set of biographical questions from two elderly homes in Basel, conducted interviews with one of these question sets and compared the experience to using biographical question prompt experiments of my own. Focusing on prompting a visual outcome with non-typical questions using participatory design methods such as collage and handwriting, the results took physical form of video, photographic collage and printed booklets and inspired design for autobiographic question games. I realised that multiple tools could be used to offer choice for a method that could work best for restrictions such as accessibility and time constraints. The project showed me how designers and elderly participants can both gain from working together: the elderly get to actively shape visual tools meant for them, while designers step out from behind their screens to learn from lived experiences across generations.