A personal assistant for dementia to stay at home safe at reduced cost

Purpose This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the commercially available PAL4-dementia system, a supportive touch screen for people with dementia. The main purpose was to study the advantages and disadvantages of the system from the perspective of the client, family and professional caregiver and the potentials to upscale its use. Method The evaluation was conducted over 9 months with 16 clients of 2 healthcare organizations in the Netherlands. A mixed-method design was used in this pilot, involving log files of system use, interviews with family caregivers, a focus group made up of professional caregivers, observations of project group meetings and a cost analysis. Results Clients and family caregivers reported good support of daily life activities. They thought the system could help the client to live at home for a longer period of time. The cost analysis showed monthly savings per client as compared to living in a nursing home ranging from around € 820 (10 clients) to € 860 (50 clients). Despite these positive results, numerous problems were detected: (i) interruptions of technology, (ii) insufficient operation knowledge of professional caregivers, (iii) insufficient active involvement of family caregivers, and (iv) limited user friendliness of the lay-out