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Reda is an AI caregiver companion for FTD dementia. Built after caregiving for a family member with FTD, where communication missteps and undocumented symptoms were recurring problems no existing tool addressed. Reda is designed entirely around the caregiver. Combining FTD communication guidance, a symptom and medication log, and private journaling. Currently in solo development with Antigravity.

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Background

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is known to cause behavioral disinhibition; difficulty suppressing in-the-moment responses, which research identifies as one of the primary sources of caregiver distress in the condition. I experienced this directly after my mother was diagnosed and I became one of her caregivers alongside my siblings. In one instance, I told her days in advance that we'd tidy her room, and she agreed without hesitation; but when the day came, she reacted as if the conversation had never happened, refusing entirely. This inconsistency isn't a communication failure on either side. Studies on FTD caregiving describe it as a documented behavioral pattern, and note that caregivers are rarely equipped to handle it without training.

Each consultation relied on how I described her recent behavior at home. That's expected. FTD patients typically retain limited insight into their own symptoms, so doctors lean on caregiver-reported history. But we rarely had anything recorded to draw from. Most of what we reported came from memory, and details were often incomplete by the time we reached the doctor.

Medication added another layer. There was no fixed review schedule, so the next check-up was effectively determined by when her supply ran out. Tracking remaining medication became something we had to manage ourselves, just to know when a visit was due. Locating dementia-related support nearby- communities, centers, structured activities was similarly difficult with no centralized source to check.

Besides, Indonesia's Ministry of Health projects dementia cases will reach 2 million by 2025, rising to an estimated 4 million by 2050. Globally, over 55 million people currently live with dementia, projected to reach 78 million by 2030. A scale current caregiver-facing tools have yet to address.

Solution

Reda is built for addressing four needs identified through this process: communication guidance grounded in FTD-specific behavioral research, a symptom and medication log for accurate doctor visits, a private journaling space, and a directory of nearby dementia support resources.

Process & Current Status

I built Reda using Antigravity, an AI-assisted app builder, which let me move from concept to a working prototype quickly as a solo builder. The current version is an MVP covering the feature set outlined above. This is phase one. Phase two is validation, testing these features with other FTD caregivers, to determine whether the proposed solution aligns with the needs it addresses, and identify which features already fit and which require further iteration.