In the proposed study, we will develop and evaluate a product called My MESSAGE (Multimedia Ecopsychosocial Support System for Alzheimers within Geriatric Environments), which will circumvent the limitations of traditional visual cues and also provide unprecedented flexibility and precision for assisting with wayfinding and reducing other challenging behaviors in PWD. The target consumer for MM will be nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult day centers, all of which serve PWD. The central component of the system will be the MM Display System. Monitors will be installed at carefully-selected locations in locked Special Care Units and/or other residential care facilities for PWD. When a resident nears a monitor, the MM Display System will, through the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), recognize that the resident is nearby, retrieve information from a database, and display a customized message, image, or video clip for that specific person. Staff members will be able to create and deploy appropriate messages for each resident from any computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the MM Administration Portal. Staff will also have access to the MM Visibility Test, which will allow users to ensure that the message size is appropriate for the PWD. Finally, consumers will have access to the MM Training Module, a 45-minute interactive, SCORM-compliant course, which explain how to use the MM Admin Portal, discuss how to create appropriate messages for PWD, and answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The Phase 1 study will have the following Specific Aims: (1) develop Alpha Versions of the MM Display System, Administration Portal, Visibility Test, and Training Module, (2) examine the Impact of the MM System on PWD, and (3) examine Staff Satisfaction with the MM System. This Phase 1 Project will set the groundwork for a Phase 2 study in which we will create Beta Versions of all components of the MM System, test the MM System with a larger number of sites and participants, test the System in other settings (including Adult Day Centers and Senior Living Apartments), examine the effect of the product on PWD for a longer period of time, and examine the use of face detection technology for persons who do not wear RFID tags.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Project Narrative An estimated 5.4 million Americans are currently suffering from Alzheimers disease (AD); besides affecting the person with the condition, AD also presents a public health concern, due to the significant cost required to care for persons with dementia (PWD) and to the mental and physical stress placed upon caregivers. So, there is an urgent need for products and programs that improve the quality of life of PWD and reduce challenging behaviors. Through the development and evaluation of the My MESSAGE System, which aims to improve wayfinding and reduce challenging behaviors in PWD by automatically presenting PWD with customized messages on displays within memory care facilities, the proposed project will help meet this need.
Project Terms: Adult; Affect; Aggressive behavior; Alzheimer's Disease; American; Anxiety; Assisted Living Facilities; Behavior; Benchmarking; Caregivers; Caring; Cellular Phone; Clip; Computer software; Computers; cost; Cues; Custom; Databases; Dementia; Detection; Development; digital; Disabled Persons; Elderly; Engineering; Ensure; Environment; Esthetics; Evaluation; experience; Face; flexibility; Image; Impairment; improved; Institutes; Intervention; Location; Long-Term Care; member; Memory; mobile application; Monitor; Multimedia; multimodality; Neurobiology; Nursing Homes; Participant; Persons; Phase; phase 1 study; phase 2 study; Prevalence; programs; Psyche structure; Public Health; Quality of life; Quasi-experiment; radio frequency; Research; residential care facility; satisfaction; Site; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; software development; Space Perception; Specific qualifier value; Stress; Support System; System; Tablets; Technology; Testing; Text; Time; Training; Training Activity; Vision; Visual; way finding
