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September 16-17, 2019 | Paris, France
Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease
13th World Congress on
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and Cognitive Psychology | Volume: 03
Lessons learned from three AAL-projects in developing meaningful supportive technologies
Sandra Suijkerbuijk, Henk Herman Nap and Mirella Minkman
University of Technology, The Netherlands
Large national and international programs on developing
supportive technologies reflect the growing interest in
the potential of technologies in improving dementia care.
For instance, the European Active and Assisted Living (AAL)
programme had a total budget of € 700 million for research,
development and implementation of supportive technologies
between 2014 and 2020 (“AAL Programme,” n.d.). Examples
of supportive technologies that are developed in these
programmes are sensor systems, smartphones with low
complexity, reminiscence applications and electronic
calendars. These (or combinations of) technologies can
promote safety, foster communication, provide multi-
sensory stimulation or act as memory aids (Evans, Brown,
Coughlan, Lawson, & Craven, 2015). Earlier work emphasizes
the importance of involving people with dementia in
the development of meaningful supportive or assistive
technologies (Holthe, Halvorsrud, Karterud, Hoel & Lund,
2018; Meiland et al., 2017; Span, Hettinga, Vernooij-Dassen,
Eefsting, & Smits, 2013; Topo, 2009). However, actual co-
designing supportive technologies together with people with
dementia still remains challenging (Suijkerbuijk et al., 2019).
We present a synthesis of valuable lessons learned
from three AAL-funded projects as a contribution to
the collective understanding of co-designing supportive
technologies with people with dementia. These projects
(eWare, FreeWalker and MagicTable) have different aims
and different consortia. The goal of the ‘eWare’ project is
to introduce a novel eco-system of a lifestyle monitoring
system and social support robotics to enhance the
wellbeing of people with dementia and their informal
carers. Within the project ‘FreeWalker’, a European
consortium of eight partners is working together to
develop a dynamic GPS-based safety zone for people with
dementia. And in the ‘MagicTable’ project, we explore
opportunities of technology to contribute to meaningful
and fun activities in the home situation. We discuss the
implications of the lessons from these different projects
for improving the involvement of people with dementia in
the development of supportive technologies.
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