Week 9 Competencies & Reflection

Competency (VI)

6.1 Determine factors that affect communication with the identified audience.

6.1.1 Segment the audience to be addressed, as needed.

6.1.2 Identify the assets, needs, and characteristics of the audience that affect communication and message design (e.g. literacy levels, language, culture, and cognitive and perceptual abilities).

Summary: This week, I spent time designing the early-stage care guide and preparing materials that would be best suited for caregivers in the early stages of caring for their person with dementia (6.1.1). Since this greatly differs across the stages of dementia, the assets, needs, and characteristics of the audience greatly differs as well. In the early stages, caregivers are most likely starting with next to nothing to be prepared for caregiving, so this stage clearly outlines educational information about dementia, early-stage caregiving tips that would best prepare a caregiver for the expected and unexpected, and chapter specifically dedicated to the mental health and wellbeing of the caregiver, allowing them a chance to reflect on their situation and find the resources they need to be most stable and successful in their role. Throughout these chapters, there will also be micro-goals that serve a reminder that the caregiver should slowly be collecting and preparing documents and slowly adapting their environment for their person (6.1.2). The overall communication and message design is informative, but empathetic and empowering towards caregivers, and at an eighth grade reading level so that information is accessible (6.1.2).

6.4 Select methods and technologies used to deliver messages.

6.4.3 Develop communication aids, materials, or tools using appropriate multimedia (e.g. infographics, presentation software, brochures, and posters).

6.4.4 Assess the suitability of new and/or existing communication aids, materials, or tools for audience(s) (e.g., the CDC Clear Communication Index and the Suitability Assessment Materials (SAM).

Summary: This week, the bulk of my work consisted of creating communication aids, materials, and tools, that go along with the early-stage care guide that Sarah and I developed. The guide was created on a Word document, so it is slowly becoming a designed care guide through Canva (6.4.3). This is where I design each page that corresponds with the information we developed. At this stage, the new communication materials are mostly drafts, so I make sure to share them with Sarah as I go along to assess the suitability of the design and the words on the page (6.4.4). Sometimes, we run into issues such as pages being too wordy or designs crowding the page, so I always get her opinion on the matter before continuing.

Reflection: What, So What, What Now?

This week at the CARE Center, I developed designs for the early-stage care guide. This means using graphics, pictures, borders, copying over text and organizing it to fit the page, and ensuring the correct logos, colors, and fonts are being used. This week has been a bit of a challenge, because there is so much information that we wish to share and not enough space for each page. It would make the most sense for these pages to be separated into two pages, however we want to try and limit confusion, while also being concise as possible so that the audience is not overwhelmed by information but gets the education that they need. This has taught me to adjust my needs and wants for the care guide and ensuring that we maintain the original goals of the guide: less pages, caregiver-oriented education, and more emotional. For next week, I will continue to work on these goals and design more pages in the rough draft stages. This week has taught me that simple, plain design may be easier than complex, crowded pages.