91ÑÇÉ«

Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar and PhD Candidate at the School of Global Health Rupsha Mutsuddi presented a paper titled Understanding Loneliness through Systems: Breakdown in Dementia Care Contexts at the Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium (RSD15) in Turin, Italy. The paper was co-authored by Hailey Slattery-Johnson, a community partner at Shorthills Retirement Community in Pelham Ontario, and DI member and Director of the Social and Technological Systems (SaTS) Lab Dr. Shital Desai. 

The paper explores people living with dementia’s experiences with loneliness and factors that contributed to loneliness. The experiences were translated into a systems map to identify causal loops that can inform the future design of technologies and services. The Co-Design Activity was facilitated through the TIDE (Technologies, Isolation, Daily Life, and Everyday Activities) Co-Design Tool which was designed by the authors. Two Co-Design Workshops were conducted at 91ÑÇÉ« and at Shorthills Villa Retirement Community with 14 people living with dementia, 13 Caregivers, and 3 Technology Developers. Workshop transcripts and TIDE tool data was analyzed using content analysis in Atlas. ti. Thematic codes from the content analysis helped target key quotations, thereby identifying system variables. These system variables were consolidated into nodes, organized into clusters, and mapped into a visual systems map in Kumu.io based on relationships. Through this process, three key design implications were informed by causal loop diagrams.

This work was funded through the Connected Minds CFREF Knowledge Mobilization Grant, NSERC, and SSHRC. Mutsuddi’s travel to Italy was funded through the VISTA PhD research stipend. The authors are thankful to the research team from SaTS lab: Dr. Somang Nam, Dohyoung Kim, RJ Remesat, and Syed Haider. They would also like to thank community partners Shorthills Retirement Villa Community and Memory Lane Home Living. Lastly they are thankful to all the people living with dementia and community members who contributed to their study. 

The paper will be published as part of the conference proceedings in 2027. RSD15 is a premier conference in systems thinking and design with submissions from 16 countries. While in Turin, Rupsha also engaged in workshops that focused on co-creation methodologies, life-centred design practices for providing care through more-than-human practices, and improvisational design probes exploring people’s relationships with nature. Rupsha also attended talks and seminars which focused on transdisciplinary approaches to systems thinking and design in contexts such as healthcare, health economics, legal design, and climate engagement. The paper she presented was well received and opened conversations about involving people with lived experiences into the design and research process. 

Rupsha’s primary supervisor is Dr. Shital Desai. Her supervision committee members are DI member Dr. Amrita Daftary and Dr. Robert Allison. She is funded through the SSHRC CGS-D Doctoral Fellowship, the Connected Minds Scholarship, and the DIGHR Scholarship. 

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