College Student Designs “Water You Can Eat” After Dehydrated Grandma Goes To E.R.

Jan 14, 2019 by apost team

For the 50 million adults living with Alzheimer’s, worldwide, dehydration poses a real and severe threat to everyday health. Each year, as many as one million elderly adults require hospitalisation because of their critically low levels of hydration.

This occurs more frequently among dementia patients who forget to drink water, can’t find it, or experience a decline in their sense of thirst or dexterity that inhibits drinking. Worse yet, dehydration symptoms are often attributed to dementia patients’ underlying conditions, allowing symptoms to continue until they become life-threatening.

When Lewis Hornby’s grandmother was hospitalized for severe dehydration, he used his university coursework in Innovation Design Engineering to solve her water intake problem. He came up with Jelly Drops or “water you can eat,” intelligently designed, brightly coloured gumdrops, shown in nursing and care home trials to be attractive to dementia patients, including those who otherwise turn down food and drink. When Lewis first presented a box of them to his grandmother, she ate 7 in 10 minutes.

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“The equivalent to a cup full of water,” Lewis said, “something that would usually take hours and require much more assistance.”

To create Jelly Drops, Lewis began by consulting with a dementia psychologist, then used sensory depriving and VR tools to experience, firsthand, the perception differences that plague dementia patients. Finally, he spent weeks living in his grandmother’s care home, observing residents’ behaviors and carers’ routines while also speaking with family and visitors.

He settled on a food item, as opposed to a liquid alternative, when he noted that those with dementia found eating to be easier than drinking, further noting that the easiest way to encourage dementia patients to eat was to offer a treat. Jelly Drops’ design capitalizes on both those facts.

Lewis’ good work gained rapid, widespread attention. He won awards, including the Dyson School of Design Engineering DESIRE Award for Social Impact, and received many offers to trial Jelly Drops within care homes, from players as notable as the BBC World Service. “I aim to fully utilize these opportunities to carry out further tests at different stages of dementia, with a view to put Jelly Drops into production,” Lewis said.

What do you think about this idea? Do you think it will help the elderly or do you think it's simply a business idea to make money? Tell us your opinion in the comments and pass this story on to your friends and loved ones to raise awareness.