Doumi - mobile app that shares the burden of dementia caregiving

Excutive Summary

Product Vision

Doumi is a social and collaboration mobile platform for family caregivers of dementia patients to share their struggles in their caregiving journey and learn more about de-escalation strategies for agitated patients so that they empower each other in navigating their caregiving journey and promote self-care.

Pain Points?

Existing Solutions

Our Solution

• Feelings of social isolation
• The lack of emotional and social contact and support
• Constant need to redirect an agitated loved one
• Not being able to easily practice self care
• Feelings of social isolation and redirected social contact and support were prioritized due to the size of the population with the pain, impact, and their less legal and technical constraints
• Our user interviews unanimously revealed the overwhelming challenge of having to redirect and de-escalate agitated behaviours. According to a 2021 research by National Academy of Sciences, one of the most significant stressors associated with the caregiver role was isolation as they often sacrifice their time for leisure and self-care in order to take care of the patient [3]. Considering Brodaty’s research that mental health of caregivers who had satisfactory social interactions exhibited better mental health [4], it is evident from both lived experiences and empirical evidence that addressing the pressing issues of social isolation and compromised self-care, is not just necessary; it is an immediate imperative. By doing so, we aim not only to target social isolation and the hindrance to self-care but also to enrich the quality of care provided to individuals with dementia, fostering a community where support, understanding, and encouragement are paramount.

According to our interviewees and recent research, family caregivers for dementia patients resort to occasional help from family and friends, writing notes, using paid care services, and employing medication management apps. However, there is no optimal solution that addresses their pain points related to social isolation and self-care. Thus, their current solution consists of a combination of different resources which include:

• Facebook Groups
• Altzheimer/Dementia support groups
• Local Caregiver support groups

• Our solution is to create a supportive, safe environment where dementia caregivers can talk about challenges and feel mentally and socially supported
• Our product goals include:
• Caregivers have a reduced feeling of isolation - they know that they are not alone in their caregiving journey
• Caregivers feel easier to redirect agitated behaviours of dementia patients
• Foster a community for caregivers of dementia patients to give and find support within
• Our success metrics are as follows:
• Activation
• # app downloads
• # sign-ups
• After the first quarter, acquire 100 users
• Engagement
• monthly active users: 30%, activeness defined by interactions such as posts, shares, reactions
• # post with at least 1 interaction, interaction defined as reactions, comments, and shares
• Retention
• 28 day retention
• Revenue
• Not our main focus until we surpass our acquisition goal
• User Satisfaction
• NPS (5 faces)
• Post-survey, users report less stress

Link to our PRD

Appendix

[1]Landscape of Caregiving Innovations Report

[2]National Spending for Long-term Services and Supports (LTSS)

[3no self-care

[4]Family caregivers of people with dementia

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