A new mobile application in Singapore is taking an innovative approach to communication training for caregivers of people with dementia.
The Institute of Mental Health (IMH), a tertiary psychiatric hospital under the National Medical Group in Singapore, has collaborated with Taggle, a connected digital health platform provider, to develop the Play2Care app.
What is it about
Now available on both Android and iOS app stores. Play to Care Gamifying Dementia Caregiver Training. A series of explanatory videos on the TANGO approach to caregiving developed by IMH. The videos show how the technology can be applied to five common scenarios in dementia caregiving.
“Taggle used technology in the Play2Care app to recreate interactive scenarios where caregivers can practice TANGO, giving them a natural way to react when faced with real-life situations,” explained Lee Seng Beo, CEO of Taggle.
Play2Care also features mini games that caregivers can play with their patients. The app is also designed with adult caregivers in mind, incorporating elements such as large font sizes, high-contrast colored buttons, voiceovers, and slowed-down animations.
IMH shared this. Play to Care bloodWe investigated how caregivers’ dementia knowledge and comfort levels were increased when interacting with people with dementia in small groups. A pilot experiment with five participants.
Why it matters
Behavioral changes in dementia patients are challenging for caregivers. These changes, which are practical attempts to communicate unmet needs, can be stressful for caregivers who lack understanding. According to IMH, anxiety, reversed sleep-wake patterns, refusal to shower, repeated requests for food, and increasing suspiciousness are some of the most common behavioral problems that caregivers find difficult to understand.
“This knowledge gap on how to communicate effectively with people with dementia often stems from a lack of understanding of these behaviors and requires a different set of communication skills. While we can provide medical advice and treatment, there needs to be more creative ways to impart communication skills that caregivers can apply in their daily lives to ease stress. That’s why we launched this app,” said Dr Yao Fengyuan, Senior Consultant and Head of the Department of Geriatric Psychiatry at IMH.It was flat.
To manage this behavior, IMH offers the TANGO communication strategy, which involves the following techniques: a gentle approach, acknowledging feelings and unmet needs, never challenging behavior, starting simple conversations, and optimizing the environment to promote comfort and independence.
According to Ong Shin Ling, a senior occupational therapist at IMH, simply attending a class to learn about common challenging behaviors and how to manage them is no longer enough. “We need supplemental platforms that allow caregivers to practice and implement the communication strategies they have learned beyond the classroom setting,” she added.
The bigger trend
As global workforce shortages impact the aged care sector, digital approaches, including leveraging mobile and robotic technologies, have been explored in recent years.
In Singapore, a prototype of a mobile app that helps improve multilingual thinking skills in older adults and thus prevent the progression of dementia has recently been introduced to an active ageing centre.
Projects in progress in Australia With a $1 million grant from Google.org, MATCH is integrating music-based interventions to help people with dementia feel better about their moods into a caregiver training app.
Also in Australia, startup Andromeda Robotics has launched a humanoid robot. Abi was created to be an empathetic companion to the elderly living in nursing homes.
Deployment of AI-based companion robots, etc. Fior and ChaniThere is a trend among local governments in Korea to keep elderly people who live alone in their homes.
