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UVic-UCC and the UOC develop an application to support caregivers of Alzheimer's patients
UVic-UCC and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), working with the company Confluencia Solucions en Convergència Digital y Mobilidad, SL, have created a tool to improve the quality of life of informal caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. This is a mobile application (an app) that creates virtual communities of practice by contacting relatives of Alzheimer's patients who are caregivers, so that they can share their knowledge and experiences to improve their quality of life, and alleviate caregiver stress by improving information, social support and providing coping strategies.
More than 50 people, divided into two groups, used this application for 10 months. One was made up of only caregivers and an expert who acted as moderator. In the other group there were 22 caregivers and three moderators who were professionals in the healthcare field. In both cases, the caregivers rated the app in very positive terms, as they felt it provided them with support, and they asked to continue using it. As a result, the next objective is to raise awareness of the app among caregivers' associations and foundations that work with Alzheimer's patients.
The app, which is called "Estic amb tu," was developed as part of the doctoral thesis by Montse Romero Mas, which she is producing at UVic-UCC Doctoral School and which is supervised by Dr Anna Ramon Aribau (UVic-UCC) and Dr Beni Gómez-Zúñiga (UOC), for the company Confluència Solucions en Convergència Digital i Mobilitat, SL. The four parties have signed a joint authorship agreement, formalising the result of a collaborative process that was presented at the Mobile World Congress 2019.
The app aims to provide a social use for research based on Alzheimer's, a chronic disease that is increasingly prevalent, and it focuses on the "invisible patient," the informal caregiver. The third-year students at the Sant Genís and Santa Agnès primary school in Taradell christened the application "Estic amb tu" [I'm with you] during the "emotions workshop" that they shared with the researchers that connected them to caregivers. The logo was produced by the graphic designer Guillem Lluch.