Challenges in Dementia Family Caregiving and How Technology Helps in Monitoring
Date of Award
August 2017
Degree Type
Thesis
Department
Design
Advisor(s)
Donald W. Carr
Second Advisor
Lucinda K. Havenhand
Keywords
Alzheimer's, Caregiver burden, Caregiving, Design, Robot
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
Research indicates that taking care of people with dementia as family caregivers can
cause huge stress and burden. In this project, I studied how dementia influenced the life
of family caregivers and found that monitoring is one of the most burdensome caregiving
tasks. Living with uncertainty about loved one’s safety and health can be scary. To explore
new technological opportunities in monitoring people with dementia, I conducted surveys
and interviews with dementia family caregivers about their experiences, attitudes, and
expectations of a monitoring system. Based on the research, I designed a comprehensive
monitoring system using an animal-shaped robot. Findings from this project indicate that
this system can relieve caregivers from always having to be around to support the care
recipients and help to reduce their stress at some level. Moreover, the real life robot pet
can be a good companion and bring therapeutic effects on people with dementia.
Access
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Recommended Citation
Huang, Ke, "Challenges in Dementia Family Caregiving and How Technology Helps in Monitoring" (2017). Theses - ALL. 164.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/164
