Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

Attitudes to telecare among older people, professional care workers and informal carers: a preventative strategy or crisis management?

This paper reports findings from an attitudinal survey towards telecare that emerged from twenty-two focus groups comprising ninety-two older people, fifty-five professional stakeholders and thirty-nine carers. These were convened in three different regions of England as a precursor to telecare service development. The results from this study suggest that informants’ views were shaped by prior knowledge of conventional health and social care delivery in their locality and the implication is that expectations and requirements in respect of telecare services in general are likely to be informed by wider perceptions about the extent to which community care should operate as a preventative strategy or as a mechanism for crisis management

Advances in Telecare over The Past Ten Years

This article reviews advances during the past decade or so in telecare (ie, computer-supported social care at home). The need for telecare is discussed along with how it relates to social and health care. The expected benefits of telecare are also discussed. The evolution of telecare technology is reviewed, covering various system generations. The capabilities of present day telecare are covered, along with its advantages, limitations, and barriers to uptake. Recent evaluations and exemplars of telecare are discussed. The user requirements for telecare are presented, complemented by a discussion of the issues in user and professional acceptance. The article concludes with a summary of past developments in telecare and the prospects for the future

A holistic review and framework for sustainable business models for assisted living technologies and services

Despite heavy investment in health and social care sectors in the UK, large scale deployment of assisted living technologies and services (ALTS) continues to face significant obstacles, and the lack of sustainable business models (BM) is widely regarded as one of the greatest hindrances. Based on a systematic review of previous studies, this paper identifies current trends in digital technologies and how they are used in assisted living. We categorise and analyse these technologies and through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory (DOI), we review the concepts and frameworks of BM as used in the literature to suggest conceptual frameworks for sustainable BMs for scalable ALTS in digital economy. This is expected to help in reducing the pressure on the already stretched health and social care services in the UK and other similar economies. Our approach suggests that BM canvas and DOI innovation diffusion characteristics are complements, not substitutes

Participatory research to design a novel system to support the night-time needs of people with dementia; NOCTURNAL

Strategies to support people living with dementia are broad in scope, proposing both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions as part of the care pathway. Assistive technologies form part of this offering as both stand-alone devices to support particular tasks and the more complex offering of the “smart home” to underpin ambient assisted living. This paper presents a technology-based system, which expands on the smart home architecture, orientated to support people with daily living. The system, NOCTURNAL, was developed by working directly with people who had dementia, and their carers using qualitative research methods. The research focused primarily on the nighttime needs of people living with dementia in real home settings. Eight people with dementia had the final prototype system installed for a three month evaluation at home. Disturbed sleep patterns, night-time wandering were a focus of this research not only in terms of detection by commercially available technology but also exploring if automated music, light and visual personalized photographs would be soothing to participants during the hours of darkness. The NOCTURNAL platform and associated services was informed by strong user engagement of people with dementia and the service providers who care for them. NOCTURNAL emerged as a holistic service offering a personalised therapeutic aspect with interactive capabilities

Telemedicine Scenario for Elderly People with Comorbidity

Progressive population aging is associated with negative social and economic impacts mainly due to its associated comorbidity rather than to aging per se. In this regard, information and communication technology resources may provide useful tools to assist the population with comorbidities through the use of telemedicine systems. However, despite their potential, such systems have not yet been effectively implemented due to a number of different reasons: absence of a clear business plan, poor acknowledgement of their clinical usefulness, and ethical and legal issues, among others. An analysis of current scenario from the point of view of the different actors (patients, health care providers, and health care systems) aimed at identifying the needs to be covered by telemedicine systems that could contribute to overcoming such problems. The present chapter is intended to offer such an analysisPostprint (author’s final draft

Long-Term Care Challenges in an Ageing Society: The Role of ICT and Migrants Results from a Study on England, Germany, Italy and Spain

This report synthesizes and discusses the findings of a series of studies on the use of ICT to support caregivers providing Long-Term Care at home, with particular attention to migrant caregivers. The use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for health and social care is playing an increasingly important role in the context of the demographic changes. As, on the one hand, people are getting older and the need for care is increasing, and, on the other hand, the number of formal and informal caregivers is decreasing, technical devices are seen as a possible solution to this dilemma. At the same time, people in need of care and their relatives have a tendency to informally employ private care assistants, often from migrant backgrounds, to assist those in need of care in their homes with daily tasks, so as to avoid and postpone their transferral into institutional care. To better understand the current and prospective use of ICT to assist informal caregivers, and in particular those of migrant origin, JRC-IPTS conducted a series of exploratory studies, assessing the situation in Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK. This report gives an overview on the situation of domiciliary care in each of these countries; investigates the opportunities for ICT in home care and identifies drivers and barriers for the deployment of ICT by caregivers with a particular focus on migrant care assistants.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ