Dar Voz aos Cuidadores” (Give a Voice to Caregivers) is the new board game developed by the researchers from CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research, Carla Sílvia Fernandes and Maria Manuela Martins,  which will be presented to the public on September 17, at 5:00 pm, at the Casa do Território, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, and on September 22, at the FNAC Shop of NorteShopping, at 6:00pm.

The game, which combines the best scientific evidence with the authors’ own professional and personal experience, is a new intervention strategy in families with caregivers of dependent people of any age, whether children, adults or elderly.

It is addressed towards families with caregivers and health professionals, such as nurses and social workers, who assume the role of moderators at key times such as discharge preparation, follow-up appointments for dependent people and even during hospitalization. In this sense, the game can be used in hospitals, Health Center Clusters (ACES) and Community Care Units (UCC).

“Playing this game is like giving an injection, it’s a technique that can be used by nurses. It’s like sinking a message into the persons’ head and heart. Knowledge is transformed to make room for the emotional part. In the most conservative strategies, it is knowledge pure and hard that is passed, but that is not enough. Probably, I will not have the same success that I would have if I stirred the emotions of people,” believes Maria Manuela Martins.

According to the expert, “a game recreates, allows our imaginary to be externalized, either by words or by nonverbal expressions, and this will be the focus of the professionals’ intervention. Often, there are never expressed complicities and hidden secrets in the words and expressions of caregivers and family members.”

According to the expert, “a game recreates, allows our imaginary to be externalized, either by words or by nonverbal expressions, and this will be the focus of the professionals’ intervention. Often, there are never expressed complicities and hidden secrets in the words and expressions of caregivers and family members.”

For the CINTESIS/Nursing School of Porto (ESEP), researcher “we do not always have to follow traditional pedagogical strategies. The game can be a great learning and family reorganization strategy, allowing you to build new stories with moments of openness and humor that are possible only in the context of the game.”

“When playing, people lose a bit of the notion that they are talking about serious things and end up addressing complex themes that they would probably not address in another context. The game works very well on the issue of communication, which is not always easy, and reinforcement on the positive side, avoiding conflicts,” adds Carla Sílvia Fernandes, also a researcher at CINTESIS/ESEP.

The track of the game board is similar to those of classic board games. As players roll the dice, they will advance a certain number of boxes. According to the color of the box (purple, green or blue), the player picks up a card of the same color. Purple cards contain questions for the family (e.g. “What tasks could you do for the caregiver?”), Blue cards have questions for caregivers (e.g. “What was the worst advice you got when dealing with this new role? ”) and the green cards are about health professionals (“how could the nurse help in this situation?”).

There are also “special”, “go-back” and “help” boxes in the board track. In nursing homes, the caregiver and family can get extra help with the board path, such as institutionalizing the dependent person for a while or hiring someone to take care of certain tasks. In this way, it is intended to give new resources and tools and to allow the debate about other possibilities that may not have been considered or addressed until then.

At the end of the game, the caregiver collects a card with a task that the family will be asked to perform within the indicated timeframe. Tasks include, for example, reviewing family albums or helping the caregiver to take a day off. “These seem like very simple tasks, but they have a very big impact on caregivers’ lives,” says Carla Sílvia Fernandes.

The game “Dar Voz aos Cuidadores” (Give a Voice to Caregivers) is also authored by Margareth Angelo from the Nursing School of the University of São Paulo, in Brazil. It is now on sale online and in bookstores under Lusodidata’s seal.