Smart Dementia Care

This project, funded by Science Foundation Ireland’s Frontiers of the Future programme and in collaboration with Technological University of Dublin will develop a new digital toolkit that will support someone living with dementia, together with their formal and informal carers, to self-manage their care.

Persons with dementia should be at the centre of decision-making regarding their plans and goals for daily living, including basic activities (e.g. feeding, dressing, hygiene, and mobility), more advanced activities (e.g. personal finances, using transportation, cooking, performing household chores, and shopping), and other meaningful activities that help promote health and mental well-being (e.g. social occupations, intellectual pursuits, recreational pastimes). However, there is limited involvement of these people and their informal carers (e.g. relatives or friends) in the design of technology that could be used to support their personal plans for independent living at home. This project will develop a new digital toolkit that will support someone living with dementia, together with their formal and informal carers, to self-manage their care. Self-management includes planning, monitoring and making interventions according to an individualized care plan as defined by a person with dementia, possibly with input including shared decision making from their formal and informal carers (trusted relatives or friends). The toolkit will involve:

• A simple user interface that will allow persons with dementia and their informal carers to set up personal care plans and goals for daily living activities and track the achievements of these plans.
• Sensors placed in the home that will help users and carers to monitor the achievement of their personal care plans
• Advice and recommendations based on the defined plans and tracked data

The research will take place over 4 years with the continual involvement of the Dementia Research Advisory Team (DRAT), facilitated by the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. The team consists of people living with dementia and caregivers who actively participate in research in a Person Public Involvement (PPI) capacity by providing consultation, feedback, and expertise from lived experience.

For more information, contact the principal investigator Dr. Julie Doyle - julie.doyle@dkit.ie

For more information about the funding programme, see this SFI article