All About Me: An Intervention to Ease the Transition to Long-term Care, Build Community, and Improve Quality of Care for Persons with Dementia

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACTGiven the large number of persons with dementia (PWD) who move into long-term care (LTC) settings each year, and the issues that arise during both this process and their subsequent adaptation to the new living situation, there is a need for a person-centered program to improve both the transition itself and to assist PWD in adapting to their new environment. This Phase I study will involve initial development and evaluation of an innovative cross-platform software app called All About Me (AAM), which will consist of Serious Digital Health Games (SDHGs) for PWD. The AAM App will assist staff in providing person-centered care and enable residents to improve relationships with one another and with staff, thereby promoting a sense of community.The market-ready version of the AAM App will consist of five components. (1) The Fun Facts About Me Game will be used when a PWD is moving into LTC. Family members of PWD will play this game with their relative with dementia. The goal of the game is to provide an enjoyable way for family members and PWD to provide important information about the PWD's social history, personal interests, and care preferences. (2) The Resident Game Bundle will consist of SDHGs that will allow PWD to learn about one another in an enjoyable way. Game content will be automatically created, based upon data collected during the Fun Facts About Me Game. (3) The My Residents Module will provide staff with a convenient way to view information about a PWD with whom they will be working. Staff will launch this module from any device, including a smartwatch in the market-ready version. (4) The Meet the Staff Module, which will be developed and tested in a future Phase II study, will allow residents to learn about staff members at their community, thereby improving relationships between staff members and PWD. (5) The AAM Training Modules will provide staff and family members with access to video-based training modules that describe how to use relevant portions of the app.This Phase I study has three Specific Aims, which will be completed by three project teams over the course of 12 months.Aim 1. Develop an Alpha version of the AAM App. The Software Team and Content Team will work collaboratively to complete Aim 1 during Months 1-7 of the project. They will create (1) The Fun Facts About Me Game and a single Resident Game Bundle game, (2) Two categories of information for the My Residents Module, and (3) Alpha versions of staff and family member Training Modules. Development of the AAM App will be iterative and be informed by Advisory Panels of staff members, family members, and PWD.Aim 2. Examine acceptability of and satisfaction with the AAM App.Aim 3. Examine the impact of the Resident Game Bundle / Survey Says Game on engagement/affect.The Experimental Team will meet Aims 2 and 3 by conducting a quasi-experiment with 24 PWD, 12 Staff, and 24 Family Members during Months 8-11. After an initial 4-week Baseline Period, staff and PWD will be asked to use the AAM App during Months 9-10, while family members will play The Fun Facts About Me Game at least once during Month 9.