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Caring for seniors: A remote access approach providing support and comfort for seniors and carers
Abstract   Peer reviewed

Caring for seniors: A remote access approach providing support and comfort for seniors and carers

Jacqueline Blake and Don Kerr
Proceedings of the 2014 Digital Rural Futures Conference, pp.27-27
Digital Rural Futures (DRF) Conference, 2014 (Toowoomba, Australia, 25-Jun-2014–27-Jun-2014)
2014
url
http://www.usq.edu.au/digital-rural-futuresView
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Abstract

Information Systems loneliness seniors
In Australia, 50% of people over 61 experience loneliness and 26 to 29% are chronically lonely (Franklin et al. 2008, p. 10). Loneliness is associated with higher stress ratings, an increased risk of cardiac deaths (Hawkley et al. 2003), depression (Cacioppo et al. 2006) and other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (House et al. 1988). The resultant reduced physical activity (Hawkley et al. 2009) is also associated with increased mortality (Hawkley et al. 2003). Depression alone results in up to a 50% increase in general medical expenses (Druss et al. 1999) with the lonely reporting their health as twice as bad as those who are not lonely (Easton 2011). However, Umberson & Montez 2010 report that an increase in social relationships is associated with significant benefits to lonely people and these benefits include being healthier and living longer. Reducing loneliness can be difficult in rural and remote communities and technological solutions may be the only way to improve the situation. The European funded project VictoryaHome uses a monitoring device with virtual presence capabilities in the home of independent seniors. The monitoring device allows family or carers living away from the senior to socialize via a video and voice communication mechanism which may be initiated by either party, potentially alleviating loneliness. This monitoring device also enables day-to-day sharing of care routines such as medication adherence, fall detection, dehydration prevention and activity monitoring. This monitoring approach implies that family members living away from the person can still play a role in their day-to-day care and allows the senior to play an active role in their extended family life. The use of this monitoring and virtual presence device may allow seniors to safely stay in their rural communities maintaining current social contacts.

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