Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
According to the test group's final evaluation, there was a significant decrease of the level of
care burden among the informal care-givers after using the ISISEMD services whereas in the
control group the informal care-givers burden indicated an increase after the evaluation
period. Overall for the test group, 80% of the elderly maintained their basic Activities of
Daily Living (ADL) and 40% of the elderly improved their Instrumental Activities of Daily
Living (IADL). For the Quality of Life, 70% of the elderly had an improvement in their
Quality of Life and 80% of the informal care-givers similarly had an improvement in their
Quality of Life. 80% of the informal care-givers had a reduction of care-related stress (care-
giver burden) and 0% had an increase in care-related stress.
8.3 The view of the formal care-givers
From formal care-givers point of view, at least two thirds of formal care-givers rated the
services to be easy to use. In extension, the majority of formal care-givers rated the services
to be very important for care. They felt that services were easy to integrate into their existing
care routines and were easy to personalise. Three quarters of formal care-givers also
provided high ratings for services, in terms of their importance for care-giving.
From the qualitative evaluations, we can draw the conclusions that parameters that were
important along the way for piloting the services were service maturity, flexibility and
personalisation. Furthermore, the training of the end-users and the intelligence of the
services played an important role for the overall satisfaction too, platform stability and
service availability and offering the services at earliest stage of the disease.
8.4 Acknowledgements for the test users in the pilot
We would like to thank to our test users whom we accept as an equal partner of the
consortium. They played a very important role in the process of bringing the services to a
mature level and improving them in all aspects in order to meet their needs as best as
possible. We can confirm that it is of high importance that the primary user and care-givers
are to be motivated towards the usage of aiding technologies in their homes. For the
acceptance of the services by the elderly, a key role was played by the family care-giver and
the process was much more rapid and easier if the care-givers had previous experience with
technology.
9. “Success stories” from the pilot
The positive impacts from the use of the services are described below with the words of the
real users as success stories and the overall interpretation of these, points towards an
improvement in feeling of independence and safety and in communication and social
relation between the elderly people and the relatives. Thus, an improved Quality of Life is
being observed in reality.
ISISEMD services form a basis for good communication between the elderly and their
relatives.
Hence, the services help the elderly people with mild dementia in the North
Region of Denmark to create quick and easy communication with relatives. The Carebox
equipped with a help button, is helpful for the elderly in the sense that it is easier to get in
touch with relatives whenever it is needed, emergency or not. One case showing the
