Measuring the Impact of AT on Family Caregivers - Assistive Technology Assessment - page 98

test their psychometric properties. Given the stage of development of research in this area,
mixed methods research studies may provide invaluable data about the impact of AT on
informal caregivers from a variety of perspectives. By developing a thorough understanding
of the impact of AT on assistance users and their informal caregivers, interventions that are
more suitable can be offered and funding that is more appropriate can be sought.
Summary of the Chapter
In this chapter, we have provided an overview of research that has explored the impact of
AT on informal caregivers. We have offered informal caregiver-specific models that help
explicate how AT may impact informal caregivers, and we described two measures that
are intended to capture this effect. We have proposed that the process of AT provision
needs to explicitly acknowledge the role of the informal caregiver. With two vignettes, this
chapter provides examples of how these measures could be used to capture the impact
of AT on informal caregivers. We have provided suggestions for future work in this area.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Demers is supported by the Fonds de la Recherche en Sante du Quebec as a senior
research scholar. Dr. Mortenson is supported via a postdoctoral fellowship for the Canadian
Institutes of Health-Institute of Aging. Funding for the development of the CATOM was
provided by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research through the
Consortium on Assistive Technology Outcomes Research (CATOR, http://www.outcomes.
org/). (Grant # H133A060062).
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