Be the gold medalist of your own life! The National Palace Museum and Taipei Veterans General Hospital collaborate to launch the "Life Champion Cards" for cognitive enhancement.

To prepare for a super-aged society in 2025, the National Palace Museum's Elderly Education Promotion Service has put more efforts on collaborating with Taipei Veterans General Hospital's Dementia Treatment and Research Center and Geriatric Medical Center to launch the "Life Cards Today" cognitive card game. This initiative combined art and culture with interdisciplinary collaboration in the medical field, and was suitable for the general public, families, individuals with mild cognitive impairment, those with early-stage dementia, and their caregivers as an artistic and therapeutic tool to share life experiences and promote cognitive function and self-awareness.

The "Life Cards Today" set includes 60 cards with an introduction to cultural relics and an instruction manual. The selection of classic relics from the National Palace Museum was based on the cognitive needs of the elderly, and was jointly chosen by psychologists, occupational therapists, and museum educators. The cards covered ten themes, including infancy, youth, old age, cuisine, plants and flowers, birds and animals, household items, seasonal festivals, mythical figures, and classic selections. The cards were specially designed with large fonts, vivid colors, and a moderate thickness, making them easy for the elderly to read, distinguish, and operate.

The National Palace Museum emphasized that unlike general board games or card games, the "Life Cards Today" cognitive card game was a non-pharmacological intervention activity with diverse applications in clinical practice. Led by professional medical personnel and trained facilitators, the game encouraged participants to integrate art into their daily experiences and life stories, reviewed countless unforgettable and wonderful "gold medal" moments in their lives, and engaged in self-dialogue and self-healing exercises. It served as an alternative path for cognitive function training, interpersonal interaction, and active aging for elderly individuals with dementia and those without.

Dr. Chen Wei-Ming, superintendent of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, stated that with the aging of society, the incidence of dementia is expected to gradually increase. Since 1989, Taipei Veterans General Hospital has been dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and research of dementia. In addition to Alzheimer's drug trials, it has also established Taiwan's first memory clinic and this year has passed the certification for dementia care quality. Dr. Wang Pei-Ning, director of the Dementia Treatment and Research Center at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, mentioned that the cognitive card game, developed through collaboration with the National Palace Museum, has been well-received in various workshops by both patients and their families. In the future, they plan to expand the invitation to aging service professionals, healthcare professionals, and frontline caregivers to participate in training and promotion, hoping that this cross-disciplinary collaboration can bring the National Palace Museum into homes and help dementia patients transition from their homes to the community.