People suffering from dementia often have problems with way finding and feel restless. In this paper we present an interactive wall developed for decreasing the amount of wandering behaviour of people suffering from dementia. The installation aims at making these people feel more at home in the nursing homes by guiding them with a motion triggered audio path. This leads them to a wall with large windows displaying images and short movie tracks from their hometown. The results of an observation study show that the interactive wall succeeds in attracting people and thus reducing the wandering behaviour. Remarks of the elderly as well as their family and caretakers support this conclusion.
DOCUMENT
Real-time location systems (RTLS) can be implemented in aged care for monitoring persons with wandering behaviour and asset management. RTLS can help retrieve personal items and assistive technologies that when lost or misplaced may have serious financial, economic and practical implications. Various ethical questions arise during the design and implementation phases of RTLS. This study investigates the perspectives of various stakeholders on ethical questions regarding the use of RTLS for asset management in nursing homes. Three focus group sessions were conducted concerning the needs and wishes of (1) care professionals; (2) residents and their relatives; and (3) researchers and representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The sessions were transcribed and analysed through a process of open, axial and selective coding. Ethical perspectives concerned the design of the system, the possibilities and functionalities of tracking, monitoring in general and the user-friendliness of the system. In addition, ethical concerns were expressed about security and responsibilities. The ethical perspectives differed per focus group. Aspects of privacy, the benefit of reduced search times, trust, responsibility, security and well-being were raised. The main focus of the carers and residents was on a reduced burden and privacy, whereas the SMEs stressed the potential for improving products and services. Original article at MDPI: https://doi.org/10.3390/info9040080
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