DeMensplek Karavaan

Who cares for you? Or do you care for someone? And what about the future? These important questions can easily be lost in the complexity of our healthcare system. To collect and share the stories behind these questions, the DeMensPlek Karavaan takes to the road.

The striking yellow cart with parasol sometimes appears at a community centre, sometimes in a park. A group of informal carers, artists and healthcare professionals engage with passers-by. Their conversations touch on many aspects of care, which are then given form in podcasts, drawings and letters. Together with the Research Group Image in Context they explore care networks and how to keep the human being at the centre of life with dementia. There are close ties with the regional foundation Zo Willen Wij Wonen, as well as the national expert network Creating Cultures of Care. The aim is to use these stories, and the connections across networks, to form a community that truly cares for one another. 

About the project

The DeMensPlek Karavaan builds on the existing initiative DeMensPlek, in which people living with dementia, informal carers, professional caregivers and artists sought new ways of living together within Dignis, a care institution in the north of the Netherlands. The follow-up, the DeMensPlek Karavaan, has moved beyond the institution, travelling through the city and region to collect and share stories.  

Whether inside care institutions or out on the streets, the ecology of care – the network of care and caring – is always the starting point. This network is broad: alongside family and professional caregivers, it can also include the neighbour, the baker, the cashier or a passer-by. What diversity of care emerges from the stories being collected?