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. 2022 Jan 19:9:20556683211061998.
doi: 10.1177/20556683211061998. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

VIPCare: Understanding the support needed to create affective interactions between new caregivers and residents with dementia

Moojan Ghafurian  1 , Linda Francis  2 , Zhuofu Tao  1 , Mary Step  3 , Jesse Hoey  1
Affiliations

VIPCare: Understanding the support needed to create affective interactions between new caregivers and residents with dementia

Moojan Ghafurian et al. J Rehabil Assist Technol Eng. .

Abstract

Introduction: In this paper, we study the support needed by professional caregivers of those with dementia, and present a first step toward development of VIPCare, a novel application with the goal of assisting new caregivers at care-centres in interacting with residents with dementia.

Methods: A mixed-methods study including two questionnaires, two focus groups, and seven co-design sessions with 17 professional caregivers was conducted to (a) understand caregivers' challenges/approaches used to reduce negative interactions with persons with dementia, (b) identify the existing gaps in supporting information for improving such interactions, and (c) co-design the user interface of an application that aims to help improve interactions between a new professional caregiver and persons with dementia. A pre-questionnaire assessed knowledge of smartphones and attitude toward technology. A post-questionnaire provided an initial evaluation of the designed user interface.

Results: Focus groups emphasized the importance of role-playing learned through trial and error. The layout/content of the application was then designed in four iterative paper-prototyping sessions with professional caregivers. An iOS/Android-based application was developed accordingly and was modified/improved in three iterative sessions. The initial results supported efficiency of VIPCare and suggested a low task load index.

Conclusions: We presented a first step toward understanding caregiver needs and developing an application that can help reduce negative interactions between professional caregivers and those with dementia.

Keywords: dementia; paper-prototyping; participatory design; quality of life; user-centred design.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Example of the paper-prototyping setting. Templates of iPhone and iPad were printed in their actual sized (iPhone 8 and iPad mini).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Participants’ ratings of MTUAS sub-scales. 95% confidence intervals are shown. Points show the values for each rating.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Final prototype on paper.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
VIPCare V1, created according to the outcome of the paper-prototyping sessions.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Final design for VIPCare, changed according to the outcome of the three co-design sessions. A “worked” button is added, which will direct users to the second screen when pressed. More resident reactions and another task are suggested. Search based on room was added.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Participants’ ratings of the NASA-TLX sub-scales. 95% confidence intervals are shown. Points show the values for each rating. All scores were on a scale of 0–100, with 0 reflecting no mental, physical, and temporal demand, no effort, no frustration, and a high level of performance/success. 100 shows high mental, physical, and temporal demand, high level of frustration, high effort, and no success/very low level of performance. TimeExtra shows the extra question about how time consuming the participants thought VIPCare was.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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