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Approximately 430.000 people in Denmark suffer from the disease COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). A disease which causes many challenges and changes in lifestyle, which can seem insurmountable when diagnosed with a chronic disease.

The Hero’s Journey is a service course designed by the Danish design agency 1508 for people with COPD to motivate them to keep their quality of life on the journey towards rehabilitation and thereby create a better life with COPD.  

The Hero’s Journey is based on a dramaturgically model by the same name, which describes an archetypical sequence of events with challenges, tests, fights and helpers. The idea of The Hero’s Journey is to give a common image of the mental process, which people with COPD (the heroes) and the employees at the Healthcare Centre (the helpers) are going through during the rehabilitation.

The concept is pioneering due to the positive and constructive approach to COPD, which implies a change of culture within the field. The design is adjusted to full time work and participation of all COPD patients is thereby ensured. Visualized as a game board, 1508 has designed The Hero’s Journey as the journey of a fictional character through rehabilitation.

It has been documented that there are considerable potential savings by implementing the concept. A business case has been developed and validated by the municipality. It shows annual savings up to 300-390 million Danish kroner in Frederiksberg Municipality even when the costs of implementation and operation have been subtracted. Like this, the concept not only increases the human “surplus”, but also the economic.

THE HERO’S JOURNEY
ISSUE:	How do you make rehabilitation about life and not the disease?
INTENT	1508 has designed a new service called The Hero’s Journey as the journey of a fictional character through rehabilitation visualized as a game board for people with the chronic disease COPD.
WHO:	Danish design agency 1508 www.1508.dk in co-operation with Odgaard Consult