A paper by CATCH member Dr Sarah Smith
has appeared in Technologies, an
international open access journal, focusing on emerging scientific and
technological trends, this month.
Written in
conjunction with Professor Arlene J.Astell,
the paper Technology-Supported Group
Activity to Promote Communication in Dementia: A Protocol for a
Within-Participants Study, looks at the role of the Computer Interactive Reminiscence and
Conversation Aid (CIRCA), an interactive conversation support for people living
with dementia. CIRCA facilitates one-to-one conversations and caregiving
relationships in formal care environments.
Originally
developed as a standalone device, a new web-based version of CIRCA has been
created to increase availability. The potential of CIRCA to support group activities
and conversation between people living with dementia and a facilitator has not
previously been explored. The two objectives of this study are (i) to validate
the new web-based version of CIRCA against the original standalone device, and
(ii) to explore the efficacy of CIRCA in supporting group activity for people
with dementia in a formal care setting.
The protocol has
been designed to address the identified need for new provisions for people
living with dementia utilising contemporary ICTs. CIRCA has been extensively
evaluated within smaller projects since its development, but not as a group
activity at scale. The intention is to further develop CIRCA and ultimately
present it as a web-based application accessible through the IN-LIFE
cloud-based platform, as part of a large European multi-site trial. As part of
IN-LIFE, our partners in the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden are also piloting
culturally and linguistically-appropriate versions of CIRCA. If successful, the
trial results will contribute to existing research and practice regarding the
“best” ways to engage people with dementia using contemporary ICTs.
Furthermore, positive outcomes could also provide additional options for
services to offer, once a diagnosis has been received.
The paper was
produced as part of IN-LIFE, a multidisciplinary European project
to promote independence for people living with cognitive impairment using ICT’s.
The
full paper can be accessed here.
No comments:
Post a Comment