Projetc aim: Promoting the ethical and practical adaptation of assisted living technologies in long term care . The main objective of the TECH CARE project is to introduce and train the direct target groups on acting as evaluators and primary level counselors upon the ethical and practical challenges that determine the acceptability of ALT’s into home and community care. These challenges correspond to three main education and training needs: a) Critical validation of the scope, function and data requirements of the ALT’s b) Adaptation of the assisted living technologies and domotics in relation to: - The different living environments and the physical, mental condition of each beneficiary (chronic diseases, dementia, etc.) - The role of the caregivers and their smooth “cooperation” with ALT’s c) Elaboration of the impact assisted living technologies have on core ethical principles and practical issues that affect the personal integrity and consequently the behavior and acceptability of the beneficiaries towards ALT’s as it is: • Privacy • Autonomy • Obtrusiveness • Preservation of social contact, avoidance of passivity due to automation Partners of the consortium: WW: Wohlfahrtswerk brings more than 200 years of experience in working with senior citizens. Furthermore, Wohlfahrtswerk has its own training center and experience in vocational training and further training of professional health care workers. FZ: is the most successful home care provider in Greece, Frontida will bring its know how on describing the needs and difficulties of both direct and indirect target groups in home care environment, helping to the best possible acceptance of the ALT's in relation to autonomy and independence issues. VUB: The Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) department has great experience in basic, methodological and applied research, and delivers policy advice related to impact assessments in the areas of innovation and technology development. UOC: has a staff of professionals able to define, conduct and implement new training initiatives based on innovative methodologies. Moreover, UOC is currently active in several Erasmus+ projects, being the coordinator in two of them. TUD: Technological expertise for the development of the basic training tool of the project which is the TECH CARE platform. Methodology of activities: Needs analysis ], training content development, e-learning platform development, piloting of the training content, sustainability plan. Impact envisaged is the patient centered provision of ALT's for home and community care and the optimal synergy between the new technology and the role of the caregivers. Main results: 1) Skills development for formal/informal caregivers 2) Increasing acceptability of ALT’s 3) Raising of awareness on ALT’s 4) The convergence between ALT’s and the care giving tasks In long term care, together, ALT’s and domotics will deeply influence the rise of new models of care through the changing roles of formal and informal actors and of the citizens-patients; The accurate monitoring and measurement of the functional limitations and of the frailness of the beneficiaries provided by ALT’s, will result to the reduction of the burden for formal/informal carers and to the provision of more viable space for the beneficiaries. The greatest impact on the LTC system will not be due to the spontaneous and fragmented diffusion of aids among individual citizen-consumers, but rather by large-scale organizational changes of the entire welfare system, mainly supported by the user acceptance of enabling technologies, in particular those aimed at chronic diseases, fragility and the ‘healthy aging’
We are an ageing society due to the demographic change the Long Term Care (LTC) services in the EU are estimated to increase by 30% between 2013 and 2060. Assisted Living Technology (ALT) progress rapidly to meet this demand. So that it is expected in the following years to become an important part of the long term care services and the care of older people. Under this perspective the digital literacy of formal, informal caregivers and other health care workers in LTC is more than essential in the newly shaping, technologically driven, care giving environment. The scope of the TechCare project was to further progress the digital literacy-related knowledge of the target group. The digital literacy should go beyond the simple knowledge of the function of ALT's, to the critical adaptation and evaluation of ALT's into the LTC environment according to the specific needs of each beneficiary. In other words: The main objective of TechCare was to promote an ethically sound and practically viable adaptation of assisted living technologies in long term care. The project’s contribution to this objective was to train carers as evaluators upon the ethical and practical challenges that determine the acceptability of ALTs into home and community care. As a first step, the stakeholder’s needs and barriers to ALT in general and our specific ideas were assessed in a needs analysis including semi-structured interviews, with formal and informal carers and a literature review. Based on this and considering the expert knowledge in the partnership, the educational material (training modules) for the TechCare Moodle course was developed. The development of the contents was closely related to the development of the Moodle platform where all materials are provided free. To implement the training content and Moodle platform and validate feasibility, acceptance and adherence a two-staged pilot study was implemented. As part of the pilot study, a Train-the trainer workshop for trainer experts was organised in Patras, Greece. The results were presented to the target group and other stakeholders in the international multiplier event at the end of the project to motivate stakeholders to use and adopt the innovative platform. We reached the following impact on formal/informal carers: • Free access to adult learning services in terms of a useful and high quality learning material for the implementation of assisted living technologies and their conscious use bearing ethical, legal and social aspects in mind. • Enhancement of the quality and range of the work and services provided in daily care by updating the skills and competences. • Raised awareness of the importance of the topic Impact on the elderly/care recipients: • Better quality of care. New technologies can provide better and multiple measurements that can assist nurses and doctors to extract safer conclusion and also prevent possible harmful implications for the older patients. • Better acceptance of new technologies on behalf of elderly beneficiaries. Despite the fact that several research papers emphasize the positive stance of elderly people towards new technologies, still, at least for the oldest of them, technological devices represent a complicated domain which is rather indifferent and for which they do not have the disposition and willingness to learn how it operates. Under this perspective the introduction of new technologies into the daily routine of the beneficiaries is one step closer to digital literacy and full acceptance of technology as an assistive tool in everyday reality • Better and more accurate measurements that will update the quality of the feedback doctors receive mainly from patient’s caregivers. This will lead to more customized and personalized clinical and caring interventions. Impact on organizations/other stakeholders: • Opportunity to offer new and innovative care service packages and to enrich training materials for carers. • Plans to include the program in VET training, thus enriching the possibilities to qualify carers or social workers. • Possibility to share experiences with TechCare or similar programs in the multiplier events thus enriching the discussion and definition of best practices. • Update of the academic knowledge by the needs analysis and literature review as well as the pilot studies Long term impact: • Prioritization of home care. New technologies can clearly support elderly beneficiaries to remain at their home environment, promoting also their autonomy – although here further research and actions are needed • Better quality of care in terms of the people engaged. Given the current situation where almost all European countries rely heavily on grey market (undeclared and unqualified caregiving) to cover their caregiving needs, having ALT devices may contribute to reduce poor quality of care, and force caregivers to uptake any kind of training to manage to cope with the new requirements.