Participants at a recent workshop in Bucharest run by the SENSE-GARDEN project discussed a strategy to expand today’s SENSE-GARDEN approach, which currently is mostly a therapy for persons living with dementia, into a personalised intervention for mental wellness focused on improved lifestyle.

The workshop, titled “Expanding the Impact of SENSE-GARDEN: Integrating Mental Wellness for a Wider User Base”, took place at the ELIAS Rehabilitation Hospital and was organised as a part of the 46th Annual National Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Bucharest, bringing together both past AAL partners.

The original aim of SENSE-GARDEN was to use a technological adaptive space – stimulating senses with music, images, and smells – as a therapy for older adults living with dementia to reduce the progression of the disease.

The new approach aims to expand the scope of these spaces by making them suitable for anyone requiring a mental-wellness intervention, using strategies such as mindfulness, meditation, and therapeutic dancing, and integrating them with the digital technologies that exist in the current SENSE-GARDEN ecosystem.

Below are pictures of the workshop participants and the social dinner, which was attended by Professor Mihai Berteanu, President of the Romanian Society of Physical Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation.