Social worker’s personalized calendar design meets the needs of the elderly

As the year draws to a close, we often receive many beautifully printed calendars. For many elderly people, however, the small size of printed letters on such calendars makes them difficult to read. After discussing the situation with her colleagues, medical social worker at Shoufeng Nursing Home(壽豐護理之家), Huang Qian-lan(黃芊嵐), decided to design a calendar that would be more suitable for elderly people.

To this end, she and her colleagues researched traditional calendars and traveled to Japan to learn from the experience of Japanese care institutions. With a focus on the elderly, and using resources at hand, they attempted to produce a reading experience tailored to the needs of the elderly. 
 
During the design process, Huang Qian-lan met with many elderly people to discuss clear and distinct styles of typeface, font and design that would reduce the burden of reading. Huang Qian-lan added that reminders such as calendars and clocks are a great help in care work, not only assisting the elderly with memory and providing a practical means for strengthening reality orientation, but also helping to deal with problems related to a decline in cognitive capacity and memory loss.

Although Huang Qian-lan’s calendar design has no fancy patterns, it is extremely functional and user-friendly. After considering the needs of elderly people living alone in Hualien and Taitung, the hospital printed a thousand copies at its own expense, which were freely delivered to families in need through the assistance of local township offices.

Community worker’s personalized calendar design meets the needs of the elderly  
URL:https://www.peopo.org/news/296323 

(以下是中文對照)

貼近長者需求，社工貼心設計長者月曆。

每年的歲末年初，我們常會收到許多印刷精美的月曆，但是對長輩來說，這些字體過小的月曆閱讀起來其實不太方便。黃芊嵐是壽豐護理之家的醫務社工，她與同事討論，想設計出一種適合長輩閱讀的月曆，於是，他們觀察傳統的月曆以及到日本參訪老人照顧機構的經驗，從長者的角度出發，用現有的資源，嘗試拼湊出一種適合長者的閱讀體驗。

在設計過程中，黃芊嵐跟老人家溝通，字型、字體、設計都以明顯鮮豔為主，儘量能減少阿嬤阿公在閱讀上的負擔。她也表示，其實月曆或時鐘都有協助長者記憶、強化「現實導向」的實際用途，可協助長輩處理認知和記憶力衰退的問題，這一類的提醒，在照顧上有很大幫助。

雖然黃芊嵐設計的月曆雖然沒有華麗的圖案，但功能性與實用性都非常的高，醫院也考量花東地區獨居長者的需要，自費印製了一千份，也透過鄉公所的協助，免費發送給有需要的家庭．