EHealth for people with dementia in home-based and residential care

Abstract

In 2010 an estimated 35.6 million people worldwide were living with dementia, with projections suggesting that this figure will rise to 115.4 million by 2050. A decreasing number of people will be working in the field of healthcare. A change in the field of dementia care is necessary to provide high quality of care for this target group. eHealth could be supportive in this change. This dissertation gives insight and advice into the development and implementation of eHealth in dementia care. The first chapter is a literature research for studies which relate to the field of implementation and evaluation from the use of eHealth in dementia care. After this four case studies are described where the use of eHealth for people with dementia have been evaluated. The used eHealth technologies can be divided into social contact technology and monitoring technology. The monitoring technology used in a situation at the patient’s own home was a preventive sensor technology system. The other monitoring technology in residential care was a watch which measured the sleep/wake pattern. The social contact technology at the patient’s own home was a supportive touchscreen and in residential care a interactive game was used to stimulate social contact between the people with dementia. The first results of the use of eHealth for people with dementia in home-based and residential care are positive; support in the well being of people with dementia and their family caregivers and improvements in the care giving tasks of professional caregivers. Next to these results cost savings could be realized by letting people stay home for a longer period of time.