Using a touch screen computer to support relationships between people with dementia and caregivers

Abstract

a b s t r a c tProgressive and irreversible cognitive impairments affect the ability of people with dementia to communicate and interact with caregivers. This places a burden on caregivers to initiate and manage interactions to the extent that they may avoid all but essential communication. CIRCA is an interactive, multimedia touch screen system that contains a wide range of stimuli to prompt reminiscing. The intention is that people with dementia and caregivers will explore CIRCA together, using the recollections sparked by the media as the basis for conversations. This paper reports an evaluation of the utility of CIRCA looking particularly at whether CIRCA can meet the needs of both people with dementia and caregivers to engage in mutually satisfying interactions. The findings confirm that people with dementia can use the touch screen system and that the contents prompt them to reminisce. The system also supports caregivers to interact with people with dementia as more equal participants in the conversation. The results suggest that interacting with the touch screen system is engaging and enjoyable for people with dementia and caregivers alike and provides a supportive interaction environment that positively benefits their relationships.

Can verbal instruction enhance the recall of an everyday task and promote error-monitoring in people with dementia of the Alzheimer-type?

“…Some researchers have already shown that joint-attention benefits patient-caregiver communication and relationships (e.g. Astell et al, 2010;Sävenstedt et al, 2005), but to our knowledge the role of joint-attention in performing everyday tasks in people with dementia has not been studied, and warrants attention.…”

“…Second, this strategy would encourage joint attention (a shared focus of two individuals on an object or task). Joint attention is widely studied in developmental psychology (see Striano & Reid, 2006, for a review), but recently dementia care research has shown an interest in it too (Astell et al, 2010;Sävenstedt, Zingmark, Hydén, & Brulin, 2005). The two latter studies show that people with dementia are capable of engaging in joint attention and can benefit from dementia care interventions that utilise joint attention.…”

How Can We Develop AAC for Dementia?

“…Caregivers reported in interviews after the two reminiscence activities that they found the traditional sessions much more demanding and that twenty minutes felt like a long time. By contrast they found it relatively easy to facilitate a shared interaction using CIRCA [5]. Lower levels of initiation were recorded for people with dementia in the traditional sessions compared to CIRCA sessions.…”

“…CIRCA is a multimedia computer system developed to make possible again freeflowing conversation between people with dementia and caregivers [1][2][3][4][5]. The system is based on presenting reminiscence materials from a wide range of archives.…”

User-Driven Living Lab for Assistive Technology to Support People With Dementia Living at Home: Protocol for Developing Co-Creation–Based Innovations (Preprint)

“…However, existing products, systems and services are often too complex to be used by PWD [4]. The usability and adaptability of newly designed innovations therefore deserves more attention.…”