The COGKNOW project aims to develop services for elderly people with mild dementia with a focus on the real needs and wants of users and a multi-disciplinary approach. Alzheimer Europe has estimated the number of people with dementia in the age of 30 and older in Europe at 5.709.348. Among the elderly population in Europe about 5% suffer from dementia (3,8 million people). This percentage is based solely on diagnosed cases. This is likely to lead to an underestimation, because many people with dementia never receive a diagnosis and it excludes those in the early stages of dementia who have not been diagnosed. The COGKNOW project aims to address only people with mild dementia, that is, at least half of those suffering from dementia in the elderly population (1,9 million people). This is the potentially excluded section of Europe's population that we seek to assist.

Due to the growing number of ageing people, there are, and will be, long waiting lists for sheltered housing projects, homes for the elderly, nursing homes and other care facilities. The majority of people with dementia will have to "survive" in their own homes. Furthermore, most elderly people wish to stay at home as long as possible. This on the one hand releases the pressure on the nursing homes, yet generates great pressure on informal carer(s), such as spouses, children, other family members and friends, also because of the increasing shortage of professional carers. Taking care of a person with dementia is recognized as a burdensome task. Many informal carers experience negative physical, psychological and social consequences, that besides the behavioural problems of the person with dementia, are important determinants of nursing home admission of the person with dementia.