PASHAs for Elderly People (PEP)
We are developing PASHAs to provide support for elderly people. They will be applicable to a range of levels and kinds of needs, from use by intact healthy persons and those with mild cognitive limitation, to providing support for caregivers of elders with moderate impairment and disability. The PASHAs will provide aid in carrying out activities of daily living, and health care maintenance. In addition, they will provide links to the outside world, including entertainment and information, and will facilitate communication with family. Their functions may include standardized behavioral assessments useful in medical monitoring.
The elderly represent a growing proportion of the population. They are a heterogeneous group comprising a spectrum of function. This ranges from intact robust individuals to those with mild cognitive impairment and/or other disabilities, and to those with moderate to severe limitations. The latter group includes those with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, physical and other neurological diseases, who require caregiver assistance and/or institutional care. We have labeled our approach to the support of elderly people "PASHAs for Elderly People", or PEP. The PEP system will be able to support the entire range of the elderly population. PEP may be expected to produce the following benefits with regard to the elderly: a) Extend and enhance independent function by assisting elderly people
b) Augment efficiency of caregivers in home by giving them access to data
bases, and providing easy contacts with family and medical personnel.
c) Reduce costs to families by using the internet to provide many services.
d) Delay institutionalization by prolonging the period of relative
independence of an individual.
d) Reduce institutional and societal costs.
Services provided by PEP
The central vehicle for the proposed system will be a PASHA which will reside in the home of an elderly recipient of the system we propose to design. The PEP services will include the following: Provide Housekeeping Support The PASHA will remind the elderly person of tasks to be done, maintain and schedule services to be provided, and help family members contribute commands and information assisting toward the orderly execution of such tasks. Assist in Activities of Daily Living A list of activities will be available to the PASHA, for the purpose of monitoring and providing reminders for these activities. Also, a list of equipment and supplies necessary for these activities will be maintained in the data base. In addition to the elder person, caregivers will be able to use the system in order to expedite their services and adapt them to changing client needs. Provide Supplies A data base will be maintained of addresses and telephone number of sources for supplies, and a record of purchases. The elderly will be able to order supplies such as food and utilities by accessing this module, using it as easily as a telephone. Provide Health Care Support A data base of medication regimens will be maintained by this module, which will remind the client of the needed medication in real-time, again by the an easy communication modality. The module will also communicate with physicians, and provide a "Mayday" function to summon help in emergencies. Provide Links to the Outside World This is one of the most important modules of PEP. A data base will be maintained, which will include entertainment material pre-selected by the elder, the family, and caregivers, and multimedia data bases of family and friends which will be continuously updated in order to provide a "stream of life" contact to the elderly, including photos and videos of activities of relatives, e.g. children and grandchildren, etc. A very simple example of such a message is "A message to Grandma", a pair of web pages telling Grandmother of a grandson's participation in a Memorial Day parade. It can be seen by clicking on the link above. In addition, PEP will provide links to news and entertainment, which may also be pre-programmed or instigated through a patient command which will be transmitted through a user friendly interface, including speech recognition. It is possible that social and intellectual stimulation such as this system enhances can promote the mental health of elderly people including those with mild cognitive impairment. Possible evolution of PEPIt will be clear from the above discussion that the properties of PEP may prove to be useful to more than the elderly. PEP technology will potentially be attractive to healthy younger adults as a tool for improving quality of life for all, regardless of age.