The Videocommunication to Support Care Delivery to Independently Living Seniors

Demographic trends in southern Netherlands predict an increasing aging population in the next decade. There will not be enough health care providers available to meet the growing demand of care of elderly. Therefore, there is a need to reorganize the Dutch health care system in a more efficient way. In this process, innovative technologies can play an important role. Videocommunication enables elderly living at home to contact the health care organization by a 24/7 screen-to-screen video communication. Several care organizations started projects to implement videocommunication. Different combinations of technology were used, ranging from high speed remote controlled cameras combined with a set top box connected to a regular TV set, to a webcam using a computer based internet application. These experiments were enabled by grants from the Dutch government to support the investment by care organizations, as well as an experimental provision to arrange for the re-imbursement of the services. The introduction of videocommunication was accompanied by a monitor to clarify the progress made at client level as well as organizational level. In this paper a description of the developments between 2005 and 2010 will be given. From the introduction of videocommunication in the Netherlands, the authors of this paper have been working together to develop and implement videocommunication in a Dutch health care organization active in the province of Limburg the aim of this implementation project is to apply videocommunication to enable older people to live longer independently at home in a responsible and safe manner. A longitudinal study was conducted with 124 frail elderly clients of the home care organization. A regionally based communication infrastructure was organized to handle alerts and incoming messages from the elderly. A questionnaire was used to measure the clients’ feelings of loneliness and feelings of safety at baseline level and after 1 year (April 2010). Protocols for implementation and educational material have been developed to support organizations in the implementation of videocommunication. Applied research has been done at development level as well as implementation level of new applications and communication infrastructure supported by videocommunication. This paper, will shown how the introduction of videocommunication was carried out by the home-care organization. Information will be given on the development of services like a “Good morning, Good evening” service. The aim of this services is to provide daily structure, support of compliance with medication intake and prevention of social isolation by means of screen-to-screen videocommunication. Developments of consultation by means of videocommunication with a general practitioner and an application to facilitate memory training are currently under development and will be discussed. In the study almost all clients indicate that their feeling of loneliness has increased by the system. They feel that there is always someone who takes care for them which has a real positive impact on the clients. However, technical problems with the system still occur and finding a sustainable financial structure is a challenge.