Computer Games Help People With Dementia

“Computer games offer an exciting and engaging way of helping older people with dementia keep their brain active and learn new skills.
This is the finding of Arlene Astell and her colleagues at the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee who will talk about the success of their project ‘Living in the moment’ today, Thursday 3 July, at the at the 2008 Annual Conference for Psychology Specialists Working with Older People part of The British Psychological Society, being held at the University of York.”
Article
Medical News Today, 3 July 2008

ICMCC Event Preview 3

The second part of the Monday also has 2 sessions, each having 2 parallel tracks.

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Dementia and Telecare

“The aim of this briefing is to provide commissioners, providers and planners with information on telecare services that are available in England to support people with dementia, their carers and families.”
Briefing
CSIP Networks, April 2008

Finding the service you need: Human centered design of a Digital Interactive Social Chart in DEMentia care (DEM-DISC)

Abstract:
Community dwelling people with dementia and their informal carers experience a lot of problems. In the course of the disease process people with dementia become more dependent on others and professional help is often necessary. Many informal carers and people with dementia experience unmet needs with regard to information on the disease and on the available care and welfare offer, therefore they tend not to utilize the broad spectrum of available care and welfare services. This can have very negative consequences like unsafe situations, social isolation of the person with dementia and overburden of informal carers with consequent increased risk of illness for them.
The development of a DEMentia specific Digital Interactive Social Chart (DEM-DISC) may counteract these problems. DEM-DISC is a demand oriented website for people with dementia and their carers, which is easy, accessible and provides users with customized information on healthcare and welfare services.
DEM-DISC is developed according to the human centered design principles, this means that people with dementia, informal carers and healthcare professionals were involved throughout the development process.
This paper describes the development of DEM-DISC from four perspectives, a domain specific content perspective, an ICT perspective, a user perspective and an organizational perspective. The aims and most important results from each perspective will be discussed. It is concluded that the human centered design was a valuable method for the development of the DEM-DISC.

H.G. VAN DER ROEST^a, F.J.M. MEILAND^a, T. HAAKER^b, E. REITSMA^c, H. WILS^d, C. JONKER^a, R.M. DRÖES^a
a Departement of Psychiatry/Alzheimercenter, EMGO Institute, VU University Medical Center/Stiching Buitenamstel, NL
^b Telematica Instituut, Enschede, NL
^c Ericsson Telecommunicatie BV, Rijen, NL
^d Waag Society, Amsterdam, NL

To be published in “Medical and Care Compunetics 5″, IOSPress, 2008.
To be presented at the ICMCC Event 2008.

Electronic Tagging - Enabling Or Disabling People With Dementia? UK

“The latest sign of over zealous Big Brother or the future for empowering people with dementia?
When electronic tagging was suggested as a way of tracking people with dementia it sparked a nationwide debate on the ethics of assistive technology. Now the Alzheimer’s Society is launching a new policy on electronic tagging and safer walking technology and people with dementia and their carers are being asked to speak out.”
Article
Medical News Today, 7 January 2008

RFID track dementia patients in Luxembourg

“Patients suffering from dementia in a Luxembourg hospital are now being tagged with RFID solutions from AeroScout to ensure they remain safe within hospital grounds and are in close range of nurses and caregivers.”
Article
e-Health Europe, 9 October 2007

COGKNOW: Development of an ICT Device to Support People with Dementia

“Objective: To develop a successful user-validated cognitive prosthetic device with associated services to help persons with mild dementia.
Conclusion: Based on the needs identified, a prototype solution will be built, tested and modified as an iterative process. The device will ultimately be evaluated to see if it can enhance feelings of autonomy and quality of life of persons with dementia.”
Abstract
Franka Meiland, Annika Reinersmann, Birgitta Bergvall-Kareborn, David Craig, Ferial Moelaert, Maurice Mulvenna, Chris Nugent, Anthony Scully, Johan Bengtsson, Rose-Marie Dröes, JITH, 1 October 2007

COGKNOW - Development and evaluation of an ICT-device for people with mild dementia

F.J.M. Meiland a, A. Reinersmann a, B. Bergvall-Kareborn b, D. Craig c , F. Moelaert d, M.D. Mulvenna e , C. Nugent e , T. Scully b, J.E. Bengtsson b, R.M. Dröes a
a Dept. of Psychiatry, Alzheimer Centre, VU University medical centre/GGZ Buitenamstel, The Netherlands
b Centre for Distance-Spanning Healthcare, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
c Division of Belfast City Hospital/ Queen’s University, Division of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Belfast, Northern Ireland
d Telematica Instituut, The Netherlands
e University of Ulster, Shore Road, Northern Ireland

Abstract.

Dementia is a progressive, chronic disease affecting 5% of all persons above 65 and over 40% of people over 90. The aim of the COGKNOW project is to achieve a breakthrough with research that addresses the needs of those with dementia, particularly those with mild dementia living in the community. This entails cognitive reinforcement in four main areas: helping people to remember, helping to maintain social contact, helping with performing daily life and recreational activities and finally enhance feelings of safety. Based on a sound foundation of needs reported in dementia literature, workshops and individual interviews have been carried out with dementia sufferers and their carers in three European countries. A ranked analysis of information from workshops and interviews, and the state of the art of successful ICT solutions will be the basis for formulating the functionalities of the technical solution and for the development of a cognitive prosthetic device with associated services for people with mild dementia. The research and evaluation will be conducted from human factors, technology, and business perspectives in three phases of one year each.
In this paper we discuss the design of the COGKNOW project, the first results of the user needs inquiry workshops and the ICT solutions the COGKNOW project will focus on in the first year.

A dynamic interactive social chart in dementia care - Attuning demand and supply in the care for persons with dementia and their carers

R.M. Dröes*, F.J.M. Meiland*, C. Doruff**, I. Varodi**, H. Akkermans***, Z. Baida***, E. Faber****, T. Haaker****, F. Moelaert****, V. Kartseva***** and Y.H. Tan*****
*Dept. of Psychiatry, VU medical centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
**Waag Society, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
***Dept. of Business Informatics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
****Telematica Instituut, Enschede, The Netherlands
*****Dept of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract:

We-centric services may play an important role in the field of care and support for elderly persons with dementia and their carers. They may solve problems, such as fragmentation of care, gaps in the continuum of care and welfare services, and inefficient and uncustomized service delivery to patients and carers. In the FRUX Health Care pilot opportunities for we-centric, context-sensitive service bundles in the field of dementia care will be explored. The service on which we focus in this paper is a dynamic interactive social chart for dementia care (DEM-DISC). The feasibility of DEM-DISC will be investigated from a domain specific content perspective (needs, offerings, information and advice), an ICT perspective (ontology and application), a user perspective (persons with dementia, their carers and professionals/organizations), and an organisational perspective (necessary collaboration, governance and control, business modelling). A first demonstrator (validator) of the DEM-DISC will be designed, built and evaluated. Future possibilities to connect DEM-DISC to actual service delivery will be explored. In this paper we discuss the most important research questions from the different perspectives and the methods used to answer them.