The number of elderly people in Japan is growing, which raises the issue of dementia, as the probability of becoming cognitively impaired increases with age. There is an increasing need for caregivers, who are well-trained, experienced and can pay special attention to the needs of people with dementia. Technology can play an important role in helping such people and their caregivers. A lack of mutual understanding between caregivers and researchers regarding the appropriate uses of assistive technologies is another problem. A vision of person-centred care based on the use of information and communication technology to maintain residents' autonomy and continuity in their lives is presented. Based on this vision, a roadmap and a list of challenges to realizing assistive technologies have been developed. The roadmap facilitates mutual understanding between caregivers and researchers, resulting in appropriate technologies to enhance the quality of life of people with dementia.
The demand for knowledge management is increasing because knowledge is an important and essential resource for sustaining competitiveness. We report a system to support knowledge asset reuse. Incorporating work breakdown structure-based project management, workflow management, and a document database, the system guides workers to efficiently store and reuse knowledge assets. To dynamically circulate knowledge throughout an organization, the system supports the concept of knowledge flow, through which knowledge is transferred from one project to another. A distinctive feature of our approach is that after collecting relevant knowledge, the system sends it to the members of a project and prompts them to have a meeting to discuss whether they accept the knowledge. The purpose of this meeting is to have members internalize knowledge assets and share their tacit knowledge through discussion. We developed a prototype system and evaluated it using our experience with it.
Dementia care is becoming increasingly important in Japan as the elderly population grows. Care homes are designed so that caregivers can easily observe and subsequently respond to the needs of people with dementia.However, the layout of care homes can become overly restrictive for residents, for example, by not providing intermediate spaces where people can spontaneously interact and initiate conversations. We present a case study that explores the implementation of video monitoring in two purpose-built care homes in which we were asked to help overcome the blind spots presented by the layout. We collected data both before and after the implementation of the video monitoring in order to understand its effect. The balance between people's sense of security and the concerns about loss of privacy through video monitoring is well established. However, we found that video monitoring had a beneficial effect on both the caregivers and the residents if implemented sensitively. Furthermore, the implementation of video monitoring could support the design of more beneficial care home layouts. In conclusion, we propose that the sensitive implementation of video monitoring be considered alongside design of the physical layout of care homes.
Abstract. We aim to clarify the requirements for the mimamori-care system in the group home to support caregivers who take care of persons with dementia (PWD). We investigated the effects of the prototype, which consists of several cameras and monitors, by interviewing eleven caregivers. We found that the prototype system not only helps the caregivers to watch out the people with dementia but also removes some stress caused by taking excessive precaution to residents' behaviors. Caregivers however reported some concerns to the violation of privacy as for the caregivers themselves and the residents alike.
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