Reminder Board for Dementia Patients

 
These ladies have tested the
system and enjoyed the experience
© sintef

In Norway a simple communication system based on a computer screen is being tested, aimed at elderly people who live at home but whose memory is failing.

No keyboard is needed, only a touch on the screen, which displays the sun and the moon to indicate whether it is day or night, while a large clock-face shows the time.

“This is also a system for sharing information”, explains project manager Marius Mikalsen. The families of these patients are often anxious about how it is going with their parents, and this allows both them and the home help to enter messages that will be automatically displayed by the system. On the screen, for example, the elderly person might find “Remember to drink some water”, or “Take the number 52 bus”. Or current messages such as “The home help will be coming at nine o’clock this morning to give you a shower”.

Another useful feature is that family members can also access the system to check whether the elderly person’s appointments have been kept. Has she been to the doctor? Has he remembered to go to the day-care unit today?

Since last summer, a handful of elderly people have been trialling the system in Trondheim and Grimstad. Meanwhile, a variant of the system is being tested in a nursing home near Krakow in Poland. This version uses sensors and GPS to offer smart solutions both in the house and outdoors to sound the alarm if and elderly person is moving around in an unsafe area.

Mpower will come to an end in June this year. SINTEF will try to prolong the project in collaboration with Trondheim’s local authorities.

REHACARE.de; Source: SINTEF

- More about SINTEF at: www.sintef.com

( Source: REHACARE.de )