Technology Empowered Dementia Independence (TEDI) Network Plus System Change: Launching the Big Conversation

Astell, A. (2025) ‘Technology Empowered Dementia Independence (TEDI) Network Plus System Change: Launching the Big Conversation’, Journal of Dementia Care, 33(6) pp. 14-15

A new research project that will be identifying new ways for technology to support people with dementia to live independently as well as linking them with help and support as part of a dementia pathway is described by Arlene Astell. An invitation is included to get involved with the project via its Big Conversation.

Technology can support people living with dementia to maintain their independence through staying physically, cognitively and socially active. Digital tools could also provide a way for individuals to keep track of their health, and spot early signs of changes, and connect them to services and resources. Currently there is no dementia pathway connecting people living with dementia to technology or services, and no connection between services to support people living with dementia. The Technology Empowered Dementia Independence (TEDI) Network Plus aims to address these current gaps. 

Technology Empowered Dementia Independence (TEDI) Network Plus

The TEDI Network Plus is one of four Network Plus funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in 2025. Running for three years, these Network Plus are specifically tasked with examining ways in which technology can support and maintain independence of people living with dementia.  

The TEDI Network Plus is taking a big picture approach looking at technology from the perspective of individuals living with dementia AND the system within which they reside. After much discussion with people living with dementia, family members and community partners, we identified a current lack of infrastructure and or a defined pathway as the biggest limiting factors for technology for dementia.  

Author Details

Arlene Astell is Director of the TEDI Network Plus. She is also Professor of Cyberpsychology at the Northumbria University Newcastle, and has worked with people living with dementia in clinical and research settings for over 30 years. Professor Astell has been associate guest editor for this special issue of the Journal. 

TEDI will initially run for three years from September 2025 – August 2028. During this time our network of researchers, people living with dementia, family care partners, health, local authorities, third sector organisations, and industry will work together to: (i) identify gaps in the current system; (ii) propose solutions to the gaps; and (iii) test out technologies to speed up the process of getting helpful devices to people living with dementia. Several specific activities are planned. 

Specifically, we have planned the following activities. Firstly, to identify gaps, we will plot the current life course of a person living with dementia in North-East and North Cumbria where TEDI is located. This will include their interactions with services, eg GP visits, social care, and any unplanned hospital admissions. From the person’s life course, we will pinpoint situations and activities where technology could be helpful. This could include information shared from people living with dementia at home to their GPs that could prevent visits to hospital 

To address the gaps, we have a fund to support small projects from teams that include people living with dementia and family members, social care, health and third sector staff working with researchers. The teams will work together to develop ideas that will be submitted to a funding competition. To help these teams develop their ideas, we have the TEDI core team of designers, developers, health and dementia experts. Funded projects will also be able to draw on the TEDI Design Studio to help them make sample devices or applications, and test this with the intended users of the new tools. 

To address inequalities and bring technology to people living with dementia who have limited access, we are going to pilot a model of local technology hubs embedded in communities. At these hubs, people can get advice and recommendations about technology, borrow devices to try at home, and add their voices to the discussion about how technology could help them. To do this we will work with established community organisations including third sector organisations and social care locations that people living with dementia already use. Our approach is to work in locations that people already trust and feel comfortable to work together or bring technology to them to try out. 

TEDI will address the current fragmented system by visioning what, when, where, and how technology can fit into the dementia life course and who should provide and support it.  Visioning is a process of looking ahead to an ideal new model of what life with dementia could look like. in TEDI, the visioning process will involve three key actions: 

  • The first part of the life course described above to unpack the current system around people living with dementia.
  • This process will help to identify current gaps, as well as working with our community partners.
  • The third part is to bring together all interested parties to co-create what an ideal new system would look like. We will run multiple sessions in various locations to address accessibility issues for people in rural and remote locations, those without internet access, and communities who may be excluded due to cultural or language barriers or other characteristics, e.g. LGBTQ+. Our facilitators will be matched with community partners to increase confidence and comfort for all experts with lived experience to contribute as equals.

There will be several benefits of this Network Plus, all of which will improve the lives of people living with dementia and can be replicated across the country:  

We will then work backwards from the ideal vision to  the current day to establish what steps need to be taken to deliver this system change. These steps could include new training for frontline staff or new job roles to support digital tools people with dementia may use at home. Other steps might be how to  integrate and share data collected by digital tools at home with GPs, hospitals and social care services. Sharing data would need new processes to respond to earlier detection of changes in people’s needs to avoid unplanned hospital admissions. We also anticipate providing local support for people living with dementia and their families to successfully acquire and adopt technologies to be included in the steps.  

  • increased awareness of and access to digital support and services for people living with dementia to maintain independence;
  • improved communication between different parts of the system to detect signs of change and provide earlier intervention to avoid unplanned hospital admissions or other challenges to staying at home;
  • reduced demands on health and social care services through responding to crisis situations.

Technology for dementia: has the time finally come?

New investment in technology for dementia marks a step change in attitudes, writes Arlene Astell Back in 2019, I wrote an editorial for a Special Issue of Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders called “Technology and Dementia: The Future is Now!” Back in those heady pre-COVID pandemic days, I was optimistic that we were finally approaching a point where the potential of technology for dementia was starting to be recognised. When I started co-producing technology with people living with dementia, family carers and care staff back in 2001, I was happy being part of a small group of enthusiastic researchers across the world, who were trying to get technology into people’s hands. By 2019, digital technology was much more widely available. Smartphones, tablets, voice assistants were in people’s homes, and it felt that we were in a position for technology to do much more for people living with dementia, their families and services providers.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the technology landscape in multiple ways for everyone. This included increased use of video-calling, remote working, online tours of museums and art galleries, online concerts and virtual dining. For people living with dementia multiple activities switched from in-person to digital, including memory assessments, social events, choirs, and arts programmes. The pandemic also exposed several gaps.
These included the lack of available digital tools specifically for dementia, as well as limited access to existing tools such as tablets. Another gap is the need for a digitally equipped and skilled workforce to support people living with dementia to access technologies and online resources. Patchy wifi access, as well as limited availability or no devices, were other major problems that had a massive impact on people living through lockdowns in care homes who could not see family.

The peak of interest and excitement around harnessing technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic started to ebb away as lockdowns lifted. However, the underlying needs of people living with dementia for post-diagnostic support and tools to manage their lives at home remained.
At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially chatbots such as ChatGPT that use Large Language Models to generate text, was growing rapidly. These new AI tools were quickly being adopted into many aspects of daily life at work and in organisations. AI was applied to dementia to analyse large sets of data from memory assessment clinics across the world. Much less attention was being paid to what happens after diagnosis.
Finally, in 2025 the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded four Network Plus dedicated to technology to support independence in dementia. The four networks are BRIDGES for Dementia (University of Sheffield); CONSOLIDATE (Heriot Watt University); Technology Empowered Dementia Independence (TEDI: Northumbria University); ZeDTech (Imperial College).

Each Network Plus has people living with dementia, families, health and social care, and third sector providers embedded within them. Each will fund small projects inspired by and developed by teams including experts by experience. While each has a slightly different focus, all are focused on supporting people after they have received a diagnosis. This investment marks a step change in attitudes towards dementia and the potential for technology to deliver post-diagnostic support. Providing tools for people living with dementia and their families is long overdue and co-producing many new tools to meet their needs is a significant development. It seems to me we can finally say that the time for technology for dementia is now.

Join the TEDI Network Plus ‘Big Conversation’ 

The visioning process requires input from stakeholders across the UK, and we aim to launch our Big Conversation at the UK Dementia Congress 2025 in Manchester. We propose to introduce the TEDI Network Plus and invite attendees to get involved. The Big Conversation is inviting people living with dementia, family and formal carers, health and social care providers and innovators, to share their experiences of the current system and ideas for what a new system could look like.