Computing Technologies for Reflective, Creative Care of People with Dementia

The article explains how mobile applications manage data on individual residents to help carers deliver more person-centered care. In residential homes, digital technology could potentially improve the quality of care, reduce paperwork, and raise the social standing of care work. However, many care homes in the UK have at most one or two desktop computers for managing both their finances and their residents' records. Wireless networks are uncommon, and residents themselves only rarely have access to email or social media. The observations and interviews revealed most dementia care is mobile and physical. Carers traditionally use paper documents to record access information about residents. Indeed, these documents are often used as workarounds to obstacles posed by existing digital technology; for example, carers often supplement their observations with written notes on information sheets located next to desktop computers they would use to enter more detailed notes into the electronic care systems later on.