A New System to Assist Elders' Self-Care and Their Informal Caregivers

Abstract

The ageing of a population increases the number of elders dependent in self-care. Thus, being dependent in a home context is a fact that deserves attention from social support entities integrated into the community, such as nursing homes, which play a central role in supporting the families involved. In this sense, this study is aimed at seniors dependent in self-care, their informal caregivers, and health professionals from Portuguese nursing homes and emerged to assist elders' self-care and their informal caregivers and to strengthen the communication strategies between the different elements of the target audience. Therefore, the design and development of an archetype of a new system is proposed, which main objectives are to accompany, teach, and share information between its users, taking into account safe medical validation and ethical issues, through emerging health ICT technologies. This archetype is a reinforcement, that is, a way to promote and complete the knowledge and skills to deal with elders' well-being and health, as well as their informal caregivers' welfare.