The key idea behind this project by the S. João de Deus Institute, supported by the Gulbenkian Home Care initiative, is that people with dementia should be able to live as long as possible in their own contexts, in their own homes, with a higher quality of life and as much autonomy as possible. That’s why the five professionals involved in Home 360 strive to bring a world to the 513 beneficiaries of the project that they wouldn’t be able to reach without this bridge to “the outside”.

According to the latest studies, reveals Márcia Fonseca, the project’s coordinator, there are around 200,000 diagnosed dementia sufferers in Portugal. Considering that each one has at least one informal caregiver, this universe involves around half a million people.

What the Home 360 project is trying to do is provide a response with a systemic hat, operationalizing the concepts of proximity, accessibility and continuity, which makes a difference to people’s lives.