EQUAL Consortia - Prolonging Independence in Old Age
SMART Rehabilitation:
Technological Applications for Use in the Home (Gail Mountain, Sheffield Hallam University)
This research will explore the appropriateness and effectiveness of systems to support hospital
or home based rehabilitation programmes for older people who have sustained a stroke, the aim
being recovery and improvement of mobility. It will take into account the need to produce home
based solutions that will facilitate empowerment, feedback and carer participation. Prior to
development of the technology, we will undertake focus groups to capture the views of users,
carers and professionals. Academic therapists will be asked to identify and agree the
components of specific interventions for translation into technological solutions. We will
also establish a reference group of national and international experts. These three sources
of information and opinion will be taken into account by engineers during the development of
two smart monitoring systems (chosen to represent a high and low level of complexity), to
capture kinematic data from individual physiotherapy interventions. The efficacy of the
resulting prototypes will be examined firstly in a controlled ward setting and then in the
homes of people who have had a stroke. Finally we will consider the infrastructure required
to facilitate widespread usage. It is envisaged that this project will be followed by a
robust clinical trial to examine effectiveness. We will also look for further sources of
funding to support a wider range of therapy for different conditions affecting older
people and for suitability in different settings.
Supporting independence. New products, new practices, new communities
(James Barlow, Imperial College)
Working with housing and care providers,
the team will evaluate the deployment of a variety of telecare technologies in three
contrasting housing settings - a large-scale care village, an extra-care facility and
the mainstream private sector housing stock. Information from user-centred studies
focusing on housing, health and social care needs will help to inform the type of
telecare interventions that are made. Continuous data gathered through lifestyle
monitoring and modelling will be integrated with expressed user needs and observed
changes in the quality of life of users and carers to help identify where the
intervention has made a difference. In parallel to the user-centred research,
the team will also explore the impact of the interventions on the organisational
processes of care delivery, drawing conclusions on the potential system-wide
impact of telecare. The proposed research will therefore address a range of
policy agendas relating to the prevention and alleviation of the problems of
ageing and disability.
Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors
(IDGO) (Catharine Ward-Thompson, Edinburgh College of Art)
The overall aim of this Consortium is to identify the most effective ways of
ensuring the outdoor environment is designed inclusively to improve the QOL
of older people. In focusing on the changing needs of older people, the
Consortium will address issues that are relevant to disabled people,
regardless of age. The proposed research is a three-year, multi-method
project requiring the combined expertise of the three different academic
research centres and the partner organisations in the consortium. The programme
will involve several, complementary research tasks which focus on different
elements of the outdoor environment - that is, urban form, landscape and
detailed design - in relation to QOL for older people. The outputs of these
tasks, each using distinctive methodologies, will provide a holistic understanding
of QOL issues and stakeholder requirements in relation to designing, managing and
using the outdoor environment. These will feed into guidance appropriate to
different user group needs. The research will be user-led from the beginning,
through close work with partners, collaborators and advisory groups. These
include a range of designers, developers and providers who will provide a
professional users' perspective and assist with dissemination.
Investigating
Enabling Domestic Environments for People with Dementia (INDEPENDENT)
(Andrew Sixsmith, University of Liverpool)
Work within the INDEPENDENT project will be in three key areas:
- User requirements: The initial task will be to assess the potential of technologies to support older people with dementia and to outline design and technology solutions. This will involve: mapping out user requirements (WP1); carrying out state-of-the-art analyses within design and technology (WP2); provide a functional outline for the implementation and development of devices and systems (WP3).
- Technology development: An iterative approach will develop and test technology and design solutions for a set of core applications. This will involve: developing and implementing key assistive technologies and building/design solutions (WP4); integrating applications within a prototype system (WP5).
- Dissemination and exploitation: This provides the necessary tools, information and business scenarios to facilitate technology exploitation. This will involve: developing service and business models for technology implementation and provide ethical guidelines (WP6); demonstrating the usefulness of applications in real-life situations (WP7); disseminating project results (WP8). The R&D is based on an iterative process, involving users at all stages (WP9), in order to develop useful and usable technology solutions that meet clearly articulated needs, requirements and preferences. Effective management procedures will be implemented at the consortium level (WP10) to ensure successful completion of the project.
Inclusive Design 2: providing tools to improve quality of life for the wider
population (John Clarkson, University of Cambridge)
New products and services have the potential to improve quality of life. However,
many people are excluded from their use because they are designed without due
sensitivity to the needs of the wider population. In particular, there is a
growing market sector of older adults who have real needs that these products
and services can provide for and many of whom have the money to spend on them.
This project aims to improve the quality of life for the wider population by
providing the necessary tools, techniques and data to the users of such information,
be they designers, service providers or carers, to promote an ethos of 'design for all'.
The underlying philosophy is the advent of the designer automatically taking allowance
of the needs of the wider population, supported by the provision of sufficient 'just
in time' data about the end-users.
