Supporting Social Interaction in Care Environments: Exploring Stakeholder Perspectives on the Potential of Interactive Technology

Abstract

This paper explores care stakeholders' perspectives on how interactive technology can help form socially active environments in residential care settings. Based on participatory workshops, involving representatives from multiple stakeholder groups, we identify a set of considerations relevant for design of social inclusion technology for care settings. The design considerations relate to the following topics: Users, Places, Themes, Value and Role. We also present three mock-ups emanating from the workshops, representing the participants' visions as to how technology can contribute to social interaction by accommodating considerations related to the above topics. The results from our study highlight the importance of social inclusion technology being firmly anchored in the local and collaboratively produced care environment. In particular our findings illustrate how the local -i.e., the wider social context in which the care residents live, and in which activities and things gain social meaning and value -can offer a rich design space and valuable source of inspiration for social inclusion technology. Potential negative implications of social inclusion technology are also briefly discussed.The main contribution of this paper is an increased understanding of the intimate relationship between designs for social inclusion and the wider social context in which care residents live.

Deploying new technology in residential aged care

“…This study begins to address the gaps in our knowledge about how workers mediate the deployment of new technology in RACFs. Our findings build on recent research that examined stakeholder perspectives in the design of social technology for use in care environments [5], and contributes to an ongoing conversation in HCI on best practices for designing and deploying new technology to support people as they age [14,16,21]. Future research should be conducted with larger participant groups across several RACFs, and take place over longer periods of time, incorporating co-design and codeployment opportunities, and long-term evaluations of deployment impacts across the RACFs in terms of processes, policies and the way participants perform their jobs [20].…”

“…For example, the use of social technology to alleviate loneliness among older adults who live independently [16,22]. There is also growing recognition that new technology has the potential to enrich the lives of older adults living in RACFs [5,10,14]. Despite this, there is limited knowledge of the role RACF workers play in mediating the deployment of new technology.…”

Technology-Mediated Enrichment in Aged Care: Survey and Interview Study

“…These are often group activities. Previous research has shown that staff consider group activities to be a more efficient use of their time than one-on-one activities [ 5 ]. This creates a significant barrier for the use of technologies, such as VR and videoconferencing, which typically require one-on-one facilitation by a care provider.…”

“…In Australia, where this study was conducted, this is provided through both residential care, for people living in care homes, and community-based care, for people living independently. In both types of care settings, social enrichment is often provided through a program of structured activities, which might include group games such as bingo, exercise, and music [ 5 , 6 ]. Many organizations are now incorporating technology-based activities into their social programs.…”