Caregiver’s vision of bedding textiles for elderly

Abstract

Senior citizens have specific needs for bedding, clothing, hygiene and medical textiles that are an essential part of their daily life. The "Textiles for Ageing Society (TAGS)" project deals with these specific demands. Caregivers from 6 European countries were asked by means of a semi-structured interview, how bedding textiles can contribute to daily care work. We found that better design could support care work substantially. As examples, in the short term, better design of colour and style should avoid a hospital like appearance, and better control of bed climate will improve a resident's sleep quality. Long term developments are prevented by a number of barriers. Introduction of new bedding concepts is retarded by the fragmented situation between the elderly, care givers, purchasers, manufacturers, researchers, care organisations and politics which needs to be overcome. Caregivers as experts must be heard and their needs must be transformed into more appropriate, cost effective designs of bedding textiles, which can support to the quality of residents in care homes substantially. More intelligent textiles substantially could contribute to support care workers, however their potential has not been exploited yet.

Evaluation of compression-recovery and thermal characteristics of multilayer bedding textiles

“…Sleep is an essential activity that constitutes one-third of human life. Suitable bedding system is an extremely important component to provide a good rest and sleep in addition to the environmental conditions (Djongyang et al , 2012; Blaylock et al , 2015). A good bedding surface should provide a comfortable support to the human body.…”

Smart Textiles in Building and Living Applications: WG4 CONTEXT Insight on Elderly and Healthcare Environments

“…New technologies for addressing non-physical-(i.e., Alzheimer's, loneliness) and physical-(i.e., stroke, bedsores, and falls) related challenges are known to represent powerful tools. While there are no doubts about the primary role of textiles in supporting devices and components [12,13], the present review wants to open discussion on new design concepts [14], in which smart textiles are jointly used for multi-optimization purposes.…”

Design Thinking Applied to Home Textiles Innovation: A Case Study in an Elderly Centre in Hong Kong

“…This implies social challenges but also a growing demand for elderly goods and services. Previous research has indicated that senior citizens have specific needs regarding clothes and textiles [4][5][6]. The current focus on the development of novel eldercare textile goods centers on smart monitoring, which includes health indicator supervision, falling alert and location monitoring [7][8][9][10][11], protective equipment to lessen the impact pressure of falls [12,13], thermal heating textiles [14], and so on.…”