The Best Day of the Week: New Technology Enhancing Quality of Life in a Care Home

Abstract

Older people living in residential aged care facilities tend to be physically as well as socially inactive, which leads to poorer health and reduced wellbeing. A lack of recognition of the importance of social support, limited resources, lack of training and task-oriented work routines leave little time for staff to meet the social needs of residents. Through qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, this study investigates the potential for new technologies to enhance quality of life and facilitate meaningful engagement in physical and social activities among culturally and linguistically diverse residents and staff in care facilities. A continuum from nonparticipation to full participation among residents was observed when Touch Screen Technology activities were implemented. Data indicate that resident’s engagement is impacted by five interdependent factors, including environmental, organisational, caregiver, patient, and management- &government-related. Findings show that new technologies can be used to increase meaningful physical and social engagement, including transcending language and cultural barriers. However, the successful application of new technologies to enhance quality of life is dependent on their integration into the daily routine and social relationships of staff and residents, with the full support of management. Guidelines governing the use of new technologies to support meaningful engagement of older people in residential care are lacking: this project highlights the importance of attention to the social relational dimensions of technology interventions to support best practice in their use.

Challenges in Using IT Systems for Collaboration in Healthcare Services

“…Thus, IT systems can contribute to improving the quality of, and access to, healthcare [9]. IT systems have the potential to facilitate healthcare and enhance the quality of life for frail elderly people [10]. Within healthcare, there is great need for sharing of information and knowledge, and the work relies heavily on human knowledge as well as routines of healthcare organizations [11].…”

Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment

“…In a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on "Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment", a total of eighteen papers [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] were recently published on different topics that are related to this subject matter.…”

“…Of the published papers, four papers [6][7][8][9] were on age-friendly environments, describing the relation of how the environment and technology influences people as they age. A total of seven papers [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] were published regarding how technology can support (older) people in their daily lives in various ways. Three papers [17][18][19] were published on special care environments and their design, and how the design influences the users of such environments.…”

“…The paper by Petrovčič et al [10] is the first of a series of seven papers [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] on the use of technology by community-dwelling older people, as well as in long-term care facilities and among younger cohorts. The paper presents the results from a population-based survey from Slovenia on the predictors of seniors' interest in assistive applications (apps) on smartphones.…”

“…Juul et al [11] focused their research efforts on older people living in residential aged care facilities. Their study investigated the potential for new technologies to enhance the quality of life and facilitate meaningful engagement in physical and social activities among culturally and linguistically diverse residents and staff in care facilities.…”