An Information Sharing System for Multi-Professional Collaboration in the community-based integrated healthcare system

Currently, Japan is rapidly aging. Japanese government agencies report that the percentage of elderly people whose ages are at least 65 years will increase by up to about 30 percent in 2025. As one of the measures towards this situation, the community-based integrated healthcare system will be introduced in Japan. The system aims to provide elderly people living at home with appropriate health, medical, and welfare services. We focus on the burden of sharing information on the situation of the elderly at home among health, medical, welfare staffs, and neighbors. We have been developing a supporting system for sharing information on the situation of the elderly at home and conducted a field test around one year. We consider that various stakeholders involved in the community comprehensive health care system could recognize the importance of information sharing and collaboration with them through this kind of social implementatio

Designing video games for older adults and caregivers

Providing care for older adults is a challenging task, particularly when close family members are involved: instead of spending quality time with the other person, caregiving relationships often focus on daily needs of the older adult, leaving little room for persons to communicate outside the caregiving context. In this paper, we examine the design of interactive technologies to support caregiving relationships through play. We present an exploratory study where ten caregiving dyads played cooperative motion-based video games, and follow up with two case studies to analyze how video game play affects older adults and family caregivers. Our results show that playing games generally represents an enjoyable activity for older adults and caregivers that can be integrated into the caregiving context. Based on our findings, we highlight design opportunities, and outline core challenges that need to be addressed to design accessible games that provide positive shared experiences for a wide range of caregiving dyads

ManneqKit Cards:A Kinesthetic Empathic Design Tool Communicating Depression Experiences

While depression is a mood disorder with significant societal impact, the experiences of people living with depression are yet not easy to access. HCI’s tenet to understand users, particularly addressed by the empathic design approach, has prioritized verbal communication of such experiences. We introduce ManneqKit, a kinesthetic empathic design tool consisting of 15 cards with bodily postures and vignettes leveraging the nonverbal aspects of depression experiences. We report ManneqKit’s co-design with 10 therapists, its piloting with 4 therapists and 10 non-therapists, and evaluation through design workshops with 9 interaction designers. Findings indicate cards’ ability to elicit non-therapists’ increased empathy, and richer emotional depictions when compared to text-based description of depression symptoms. We discuss the value of these findings for interaction design in supporting richer understanding of vulnerable users experiencing depression, for more sensitive conceptual designs in the ideation stage, and more nuanced ethical values underpinning the overall design process

Connecting Those That Care: Designing for Transitioning, Talking, Belonging and Escaping

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACM via the DOI in this record.Care provision in many nations increasingly relies on the work of informal, or non-professional, carers. Often these carers experience substantial disruptions and reductions to their own sociality, weakened social support networks and, ultimately, a heightened risk of social isolation. We describe a qualitative study, comprised of interviews, design workshops and probes, that investigated the social and community support practices of carers. Our findings highlight issues related to becoming and recognising being a carer, and feelings of being ignored by, and isolated from, others. We also note the benefits that sharing between carers can bring, and routes to coping and relaxing from the burdens of care. We conclude with design considerations for facilitating new forms of digitally mediated support that connect those that care, emphasising design qualities related to transitioning, talking, belonging and escaping

Transition and Reflection in the Use of Health Information: The Case of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Caregivers

ABSTRACT The impact of health information on caregivers is of increasing interest to HCI/CSCW in designing systems to support the social and emotional dimensions of managing health. Drawing on an interview study, as well as corroborating data including a multi-year ethnography, we detail the practices of caregivers (particularly parents) in a bone marrow transplant (BMT) center. We examine the interconnections between information and emotion work performed by caregivers through a liminal lens, highlighting the BMT experience as a time of transition and reflection in which caregivers must quickly adapt to the new social world of the hospital and learn to manage a wide range of patient needs. The transition from parent to 'caregiver' is challenging, placing additional emotional burdens on the intensive information work for managing BMT. As a time of reflection, the BMT experience also provides an occasion for generative thinking and alternative approaches to health management. Our study findings call for health systems that reflect a design paradigm focused on 'transforming lives' rather than 'transferring information.' Autho

Family’s health: Opportunities for non-collocated intergenerational families collaboration on healthy living

When a family is engaged in healthy living practices together, it enhances the quality of life for all individuals. However, when members in families are separated over distance, the everyday encouragement and support may shift and obstacles arise within the family. In this study, we investigate non-collocated family members’ practices of healthy living, their perspectives on their family’s healthy living activities, and what obstacles exist regarding collaboration on their family health. We conducted an interview study with 26 independently living participants representing “elderly parents” and “adult children” in a family dynamic. We present members’ practices and strategies for sustainable healthy living activities. We also explore members’ creative use of technology for health promotion and describe existing obstacles that prevent families to effectively collaborate in healthy living. Based on our findings, we suggest design implications to support family members living apart on their efforts to cultivate health within their families

Understanding the Conflicting Demands of Family Caregivers Caring for Depressed Family Members

Proceedings of CHI 201