There are a number of problems that informal caregivers nowadays have to face: lack of experience and formal education in care, shortage of tools to manage the whole cycle, stress and depression. This is a well-known problem since family carers provide 80% of LTC in Europe. BREATHE platform will provide an ICT-based solution for the caregiver and the elderly in order to mitigate these problems and impact at three different levels: (1) personal, by increasing quality of life and care, (2) local and regional, by providing a tool usable by different stakeholders to effectively manage the reality of the informal care as well as by opening opportunities of new business models and employment and (3) European, by reducing health system costs as a consequence of an effective management of the informal care. The individual solution is based on a strong server side system that maintains updated models of both caregiver and assisted person and offers strategic support and customised guidance during the whole long-term care process.
Objectives
BREATHE Project aims to provide a rich platform for improving the quality of life of informal caregivers. This system is fed by three sources: (1) AAL system that gathers information about daily life activities of the elderly at home, (2) structured information that should be completed and (3) non-structured sources of information such as a dairy, notes and posts in social networks. BREATHE AAL system is based on a combination of distributed video cameras and information acquired by other sensors. Appropriate measures will be taken to preserve dignity and maintain privacy and confidentiality.
Expected results and impact
The result will be a comprehensive working prototype, which will be validated with real end-users in three different countries (Spain, Ireland and United Kingdom), whose main strengths will be: (1) all informal caregivers needs (communication, professional and amateur support, training, social integration and guidance) will be covered, (2) provision of support and guidance for the long-term care of elderly people, (3) training that will progressively adapt its contents to the current status of both the carer and the assisted person and (4) stress control of the informal caregiver and psychological support.
Contact
Juan-Pablo Lazaro-Ramos
E.: jplazaro@tsbtecnologias.es
T.: +34 96 182 71 77
