TOPIC Project
AAL Call 5
List of participants:
1 (Coordinator) Vienna
University of Technology TUW University Austria
2 ilogs
mobile software GmbH ILOGS SME Austria
3 SOZIAL GLOBAL Aktiengesellschaft SOGL SME Austria
4 University of Siegen
USI University Germany
5 SOPHIA Franken GmbH
& Co KG SOPHIA SME Germany
6 COCUS Technology GmbH
COCUS SME Germany
7 Technology University
of Troyes UTT University France
8 E-Seniors ESENIORS ESE France
9 Lokeo LOKEO
SME France
10 Webinage WEBINAGE SME France
TOPIC aims to support
informal carers in their daily needs with a CarePortfolio. It is an integrated set
of shared spaces and
services to support the physical and mental care ability of informal carers by enabling learning and orientation about care, by
offering a platform for cooperation with formal carers,
by improving, integrating, and making (mobile) multimodal communication easier
and accessible for informal carers to connect with
other informal carers, friends, or family members.
In this project, we claim
that we can help informal carers to alleviate stress
and increase independency and efficiency of daily informal care giving tasks.
We challenge this mainly by the provision of social support, which Thoits’ (1986) has defined as a “multidimensional
phenomenon that may be expressed through a number of different processes such
as the provision of information and advice, help with care giving, or
communicating concern and compassion for the caregiver”.
The
aimed service models
Current
available services are sometimes inaccessible to elderly and informal carers because of their limited exposure to modern ICT
technologies. TOPIC will provide services which will be used to create spaces
for informal carers to get information and learn new
skills, interact with others, exchange some goods and services, and monitor the
care they provide. As depicted on Figure 1, services are combinable and relate
to the three dimensions of social support:
Informational
Dimension
This
dimension represents services providing information of different type:
·
docIT offers functions for filtering and personalisation
of health related information provided by several health care information
sources.
·
courseIT gives access to eLearning services, which are filtered according to the
needs of the informal caregiver (how to dress and undress your relative, how to
play games improving cognitive functions, etc.).
·
askIT is used to ask a question to a professional caregiver. With a notification
mechanism the informal carer is informed about the
receipt of an answer. Questions & Answers are structured by different
criteria, like by topic, time, personal or shared.
·
In order to
profile the spaces of the informal caregivers, in other words, to define what
information to provide, which online courses to offer, which professional
caregivers to give access to,
·
captureIT helps informal carers to self-capture their
situation. The data gathered can be about the pathology of relative the carer takes care, about the circumstances at home, about
the knowledge s/he has or does not have, about his or her needs, his or her
state of mind, etc. For capturing the audio or textual information, innovative
interactive mobile interfaces are used. The informal caregivers
is regularly asked if s/he wants to make this capture evolve. This
evolution is also used for profiling.
Emotional
Dimension
This
dimension represents services recognised as essential
to social support. It refers to sympathy, empathy, friendship, or love
expressed through the support experience sharing.
·
communicateIT can be easily used to establish
an audio or video communication channel with a person through the Internet.
·
To be
spontaneous in triggering contact with others, it is important to know who is
available or who one can talk to at that moment. This awareness information
will be available through
- contactIT. It will also offer
management of a buddy list which can be displayed either on portable devices
or on TV (to know who of the informal caregivers’ friends is watching what
program when s/he is opening her/his iTV).
·
Friends can
send gestures like “I think of You” to each other by
combining communicateIT and contactIT.
Tangible
Dimension
This
dimension will support elderly informal carers in
terms of work organisation and remote assistance.
These services provide better autonomy and independency.
·
timetableIT enables the management of medicament and appointments with nurses, doctors,
and other health care institutions.
·
exchangeIT permits to exchange goods and services among informal caregivers. For
instance, they can give ambulatory devices they do not need anymore, or
exchange respite care services (3 hours of “nanny sitting” for instance).
·
securityIT gives access to data coming from tracking and/or fall-detecting devices.
The informal caregiver can then be easily informed (by looking at her/his smartphone) if his/her relative has fallen down or his/her
position (for demented relatives for instance).
Figure
1: TOPIC CarePortfolio.
All the
services provided by the TOPIC CarePortfolio are used to access the CarePortfolio spaces users can visit and populate:
The Learning Corner is a space
shared by formal and informal caregivers.
·
Informal
caregivers create their profile by entering some information about their current
situation and by tailoring it according to their needs. Profiles help configure
and depict the dedicated information and services for each informal carer. It contributes to an auto evaluation of the burden of
the caregiver and is a way for him/her to start thinking about help.
·
Informal carers can ask questions to professional caregivers.
Previous Questions&Answers are structured and
accessible.
·
Informal
caregivers can follow online training (e-learning) for particular tasks,
according to their profile.
The Fun Corner is a “way out” space.
·
Informal
caregivers can follow Laughter Yoga sessions.
·
They can
share the “best of” their relatives (by audio, video and/or text): The idea is
to be able to laugh about the situation they live by exchanging stories that
they can make fun of. Sharing this kind of experiences contributes to the
feeling of being part of a community as only the people who share the same
situation can understand this type of humour.
·
Informal
caregivers can also have some fun by accessing a bank of sketches by well-known
performers (the selected sketches are related with disease, death, family,
etc.).
·
Informal
caregivers can also find the TV grid to know what they could watch when they
have a little time to rest
The Chat Room is the meeting point
to talk about anything with selected persons. The conversation is configured by
the person who initiates it. The Support Group Corner permits to organise online support group
sessions. Informal caregivers can talk about the care provided to the patient
and can share experience with people facing the same situation. The support
group follows a plan and is scheduled once a week. Everyone can participate but
s/he has to be registered to a session. Sessions for spouse and children will
be separated. The conversation is configured by the person who initiates it.
The Market Place is a place to
exchange or give objects and/or services between peers.
The Surveillance Corner is the place
where the informal caregivers can access data coming from the surveillance
devices which may be installed in the home of the person they are taking care
of.
Emergency numbers are also available.