A brand new cell software in Singapore is taking an modern method to communications coaching for caregivers of individuals with dementia.
The Institute of Psychological Well being (IMH), a tertiary psychiatric care hospital underneath the Nationwide Healthcare Group in Singapore, has collaborated with Taggle, a linked digital well being platform supplier, to create the Play2Care app.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Now obtainable on each Android and iOS app shops, Play2Care gamifies the coaching of dementia caregivers. It encompasses a collection of explanatory movies on the T.A.N.G.O. method in caregiving developed by IMH. The movies present how the strategies may be utilized in 5 generally encountered situations in dementia caregiving.
“Within the Play2Care app, Taggle used know-how to recreate interactive situations for caregivers to follow T.A.N.G.O, in order that it turns into a pure means for caregivers to react when confronted with the true scenario,” defined Taggle CEO Lee Seng Beo.
Moreover, Play2Care has mini-games that caregivers can play with their sufferers. The app was additionally designed with grownup caregivers in thoughts, incorporating parts resembling a big font measurement, high-contrast colored buttons, and lowered velocity in voiceover and animations.
IMH shared that Play2Care proved to boost carers’ dementia information and luxury stage in interacting with individuals with dementia in a small pilot involving 5 members.
WHY IT MATTERS
Behavioural adjustments in individuals with dementia pose a problem to caregivers. These adjustments, that are precise makes an attempt to speak their unmet wants, can stress out caregivers who lack understanding. Agitation, reversed sleep-wake patterns, refusal to bathe, repeated requests for meals and rising suspicions are among the commonest behavioural points that caregivers wrestle to grasp, based on the IMH.
“This information hole of talk successfully with individuals with dementia typically stems from a lack of knowledge of those behaviours and {that a} completely different set of communication strategies is required. Whereas we will supply medical recommendation and therapy, there must be a extra inventive strategy to impart communication strategies that caregivers can apply of their day-to-day routines to alleviate stress. That is why we initiated this app,” Dr Yao Fengyuan, a senior guide and chief of the IMH Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, explained.
To handle these behaviours, the IMH gives the T.A.N.G.O. communication technique, which stands for the next strategies: a young method; acknowledging feelings and unmet wants; by no means difficult behaviours; entering into easy conversations; and optimising the atmosphere to advertise consolation and independence.
Attending lectures to study frequent difficult behaviours and methods to handle them, based on Ong Xin Ling, a senior occupational therapist at IMH, now not suffices. “We’d like a supplemental platform past the classroom setting for caregivers to practise and implement these communication methods learnt,” she added.
THE LARGER TREND
As international workers shortages additionally hit the senior care sector, digital approaches, resembling using cell applied sciences and robotics, have been explored lately.
In Singapore, a prototype of a cell app that helps senior of us enhance their multilingual pondering to arrest dementia development was not too long ago rolled out in lively ageing centres.
A undertaking in Australia referred to as MATCH, which has acquired $1 million from Google.org, is incorporating right into a caregivers’ coaching app a music-based intervention for regulating the temper of people with dementia.
Additionally in Australia, startup Andromeda Robotics gives its humanoid robotic, Abi, which was constructed to be an empathetic companion to aged residents in nursing houses.
The deployment of companion robots, such because the AI-driven PIO and Channy, has been a development amongst native South Korean governments to maintain solo-living seniors firm at house.
