| Summary: | This dissertation seeks to understand which aspects should be taken into consideration in the creation of interactive narratives destined to therapeutic support of people with Alzheimer's, offering a collection of guidelines to be used in the future in the conception of therapeutic tools for this purpose. After a search into the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and its impacts, the aging process and the continuous role storytelling has played throughout human history, three professionals from a health institution in the north of Portugal with daily contact with patients suffering from dementia were interviewed and questionnaires were given to ten Alzheimer's patients caregivers'. The answers given revealed that health professionals see benefits in the use of interactive narratives as a therapeutic tool, especially in patients in early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The questionnaires showed that the therapeutic activities performed daily with patients were mostly intuitively thought by caregivers and encompass understanding their tastes and preferences. The lack of cognitive stimulation in some patients demonstrated the need for therapeutic tools such as the one proposed. Altogether, the results provided a variety of guidelines that were taken into consideration, along with the research conducted, in the writing of a document with guiding principles for the creation of therapeutic support tools for patients with Alzheimer's based on interactive narratives. In the future, these principles may be an asset for further development of these types of tools.
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