Technology-based orientation programs to support indoor travel by persons with moderate Alzheimer's disease: Impact assessment and social validation

VA SmartHome for Veterans with TBI: Implementation in Community Settings

“…Assistive technology (AT) can be a vital component for individuals who wish to remain independent in their homes [17,18], however, there is a recognized need for homes to be intelligent and assist their inhabitants [19]. Use of technology for TBI is becoming more prevalent, particularly to address memory impairments [20][21][22].…”

Supporting daily activities and indoor travel of persons with moderate Alzheimer's disease through standard technology resources

“…During each session, the patients were to reach five of those destinations to deliver some material, meet somebody, and/or carry out a small activity with staff assistance (see Lancioni et al, 2011Lancioni et al, , 2013. The travels to the different destinations did not have to occur consecutively, but could be spread over a period of up to 1 h (Lancioni et al, 2013). The distances to cover with the single travels varied between about 6 and 12 m with means of about 9 m.…”

“…In practice, the patient shows a progressive loss of his or her ability to, among others, handle finances (Marson et al, 2000), manage medication (Cotrell, Wild, & Bader, 2006), make use of common communication means, such as the telephone (Nygå rd & Starkhammar, 2003, 2007Perilli et al, 2012;Selwyn, 2003;Selwyn, Gorard, Furlong, & Madden, 2003), perform basic daily activities, such as preparing food (Baum & Edwards, 1993;Lancioni et al, 2010;Melrose et al, 2011;Mihailidis, Boger, Canido, & Hoey, 2007), and manage orientation and travel even within familiar indoor areas, such as the home or day center (Caffò et al, 2012;Lancioni et al, 2011Lancioni et al, , 2013Provencher, Bier, Audet, & Gagnon, 2008).…”

“…For example, technology-aided strategies have been reported to help patients with moderate and mild levels of the disease (a) recapture daily activities such as food and drinks preparation and (b) move from one room to another in their daily contexts successfully Lancioni et al, 2010Lancioni et al, , 2012Lancioni et al, , 2013. The strategies developed for the daily activities involved verbal or pictorial instructions presented for the single steps of the activities via a computer system that was connected to monitoring sensors.…”

“…The strategies developed for orientation and travel relied on the use of (a) sound or light sources, which were at the destinations that the patient was to reach, and emitted verbal calls or light cues to orient him or her to those destinations, and (b) a portable control device that the research assistant used to activate and deactivate those sources. Totals of 35 and 8 patients were exposed to the activity and travel intervention strategies, respectively, and the results were widely encouraging Lancioni, Singh, O'Reilly, Zonno et al, 2009;Lancioni et al, 2010Lancioni et al, , 2011Lancioni et al, , 2012Lancioni et al, , 2013.…”