Tools for Coordination Among Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

DESCRIPTIONprovided by applicantThis project will develop a state of the art technology platform to support psychosocial interventions for persons with Alzheimer s diseaseADand other dementiaPWDand their family members and friendsFMsA tool will be developed that automatically solicits mediaallows communicating with caregiversand checks the quality of media feeding into the SimpleC Companiona behavior management technology for persons with Alzheimer s disease and other dementiaThe main goals are to improve therapy personalizationmake it scalablethereby positively affecting the effectiveness of the SimpleC care interventionThe number of people with dementia is large and growingApproximatelymillion people in the U Sandmillion worldwide have dementiaThese estimates are expected to nearly triple byCurrentlythere is no cure and the cost to familiesthe health care systemand society is largeNot only is dementia the sole topU Sdisease that cannot be preventedcuredor slowedbut it is also one of the costliest chronic diseasesestimated national cost is $billionhalf of which is carried by Medicareand expected to rise to $trillion byif nothing changesIn additionthere are few tools to meet the needs of this populationThe general approach is medicationwhich is costly and sedates people with dementia rather than engaging themPsychosocial interventionssuch as those offered by SimpleCare alternatives to pharmacology to address dementia related symptoms while improving both quality of care and quality of lifePersonalization is one key ingredient to the success of the interventionsWhile SimpleC s highly personalized interventionshuman customer serviceand advanced wireless computing network enable the creation and delivery of meaningful care interventions on a largecost effective scalethese interventions still require significant manpower to gather personalized therapeutic contentwhich is usually non digitale gPolaroid picturesreel to reel audio and video tape from caregivers and family members who are likely very busystressedand may live far awayThe first goal of the proposed project mitigates this barrier by reducing manpower requirementsproviding guidance to caregiversand enabling even wider spread deploymentFurthermorethis project will both increase and sustain care recipientsengagementwhich is crucial to psychosocial interventionsThe second goal addresses communication needs between care giving partiesThe proposed project addresses the challenge of offering a channel to communicate that is respectful of busy schedules and high workloads of all involvedThe project will assess technology acceptance and barriers in the fieldIn phase I AME demonstrated feasibility of a caregiver tool that supports the collection of media required for psychosocial interventions and facilitates communication between staff caregivers and family members friends of older adults with dementiaIn phase II AME will partner with SimpleC to expand and integrate this functionality into their technology platform and products as well as conduct an in market test of the entire platformTesting will occur in the long term care facilityhigh staff and high resident turnoverand home marketwhere the majority of persons with dementiaPWDlive