About CaregiverNet

As of 2015, there are 89,000 Minnesotans above the age of 65 living with Alzheimer’s and the numbers are still growing [1]. Caregiving for loved ones with this disease and watching patients affected throughout the process can be very difficult for caregivers. Many people report a lack of guidance when their family member(s) is first diagnosed and also in later stages. Trying to keep track of a patient’s financials, legal documents, and medical necessities while continuing with one’s normal daily tasks is challenging and is also a great source of stress for those without adequate support.

In our project we hope to address these problems by developing an iOS application to help caregivers who care for Alzheimer’s patient(s). Our goal is to create a testable app that will ease daily tasks, offer tips and reminders, provide suggestions, and help organize daily tasks for the caregiver. Through our development development of this application we should also accomplish the following tasks:

• Develop a thorough understanding of caregivers and their work. What are their goals? What tasks do they perform? What tools or systems do they currently have in place to manage their patient's care and their own self-care?
• Develop a model of "care management" for patients of Alzheimer’s based on our research of caregivers.
• Design and prototype a mobile application to help caregivers better perform care management based on this model.
• Conduct (ideally several rounds of) usability tests with caregivers.
• Revise the app to incorporate the results of the usability tests.
• Release the app to caregivers.

Many caregivers today remain independent and use simple methods like pen and paper for taking notes. The caregivers that we interviewed at the Memory Cafe were aware of the upcoming legal and financial obstacles but had no idea of where to start. Some caregivers would reach out to friends and family members for advice and help if they had this option. Others would use caregiver support groups as their only source for help. Our application will help caregivers connect to a larger network in their community through local resources.

Research

We deeply investigated Chen et al. [2] to determine the stresses of a caregiver. From Chen et al., the issues regarding caregivers were divided into two sections: objective burdens and subjective burdens. “Objective burdens include activities associated with the caring process or practical consequences of the physical and behavioral changes in the care receiver, while subjective burdens are the emotional reactions of caregivers. It was found that the negative impact on family members mainly resulted from depression, financial strain, and disruptions in family routine and dynamics” (Chen et al). Our app will focus on alleviating the subjective burdens of a caregiver, which is not currently included in other apps on the market.

Existing Software

The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) has a mobile application called AARP Caregiving, geared towards helping caregivers with their daily tasks. This application helps users stay organized and informed through features, such as a medication list, calendar, etc. Although this application had great tools and would be very helpful for a caregiver, we thought that it did not focus enough on the subjective aspects of caregiving.

We will differentiate our mobile application by putting emphasis on simplicity. We expect our biggest user population from an older generation, with less experience using mobile applications. Therefore, simplicity is essential in order to ensure that users continue using our app for an extended period of time. Additionally, our main features will be narrowed down to essential steps to take after diagnosis and a page for local Alzheimer’s resources. We are creating this application in response to the lack of resources guiding caregivers throughout the entire Alzheimer’s experience, and the focus of our application is more on the big picture, namely what tasks users should complete or be aware of in each stage of the disease.

Another key factor differentiating our software from the AARP app is our focus on the people in the Northfield area. Although this greatly limits the population that can be served, it endows us with much more power to provide information and access to resources, as the focus on one particular area allows us to do more thorough research on available resources and integrate them into our app in a meaningful way.