Otiom ‐ Developing a Dementia tracking solution in collaboration with people living with dementia and their family caregivers

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe study focused on developing a dementia tracking solution for people with dementia and their family caregivers that were user‐friendly and had a high user‐acceptability. Thus, high reliability, precision and low battery use. The study was a public private innovation project involving users, municipalities, universities and private companies.MethodThree workshops with people with dementia and their family caregivers, were held to ensure their experiences and needs were addressed (two groups of people with dementia and one group of relatives). The workshops focused on: Introduction and brainstorm for developing a new tracking solution, Introduction to possible new and existing tracking solutions and Evaluation and presentation of the developed tracking solution. Each workshop was planned in relation to the wishes and resources of the participants and involved creative and innovative methods.ResultThe workshops made it possible for people with dementia and their caregivers to contribute to the development of the tracking solution. People with dementia found the involvement exciting but also challenging, here peer‐support were experienced positively. The family caregivers wanted to participate as they found the involvement important but often, they had difficulties in finding time due to their caring role.ConclusionThe participants evaluated the involvement positively. Most of them also found the developed solution user‐friendly and ‐acceptable as it was nice, simple to use and had different mounting options. Several were keen to test it. However, some were also critical towards it and expressed a need for more features, another design and the possibility of individualisation.