Developing innovative models for health care services for safety and autonomy of people with dementia

The growing ageing population combined with lack of qualified health care staff is a major challenge for our health care system. Dementia is the diagnosis that currently requires the most extensive resources for care from the public health care sector. De mentia also has a significant impact on the lives of each individual person affected and causes a high burden of care on their families. The project will assess the deployment of new models for delivery of health care services integrating innovative techn ologies and electronic tracking of persons with dementia in order to: - Provide safety and security for people with dementia, their relatives and nursing and health care personnel - Strengthen interaction and collaboration between the nursing and health care personnel, the person with dementia and their relatives - Ensure effective and high quality services for people with dementia and their relatives and reduce the burden of care for the relatives and the nursing and health care personnel The project will mediate collaboration with relatives and assist public sector's need for (re)-organising their services for active ageing. The models which will be deployed and analysed will enhance services for people with dementia and support independent living, s ocial participation and activities, and possibly postpone the demands for more extensive health care resources and costly services. These efforts are likely to reduce prevalence of frequently occurring problems as falls, isolation and cognitive decline, emphasized as the most frequent challenges experienced by elderly with dementia. Since early spring 2011, SINTEF has been working together with five Norwegian municipalities in an innovation project named "Trygge spor I" , studying the effect of using GP S-technology for persons with dementia and looking at new concepts at product and system level. Findings and results from this project will form the basis for the research questions in this follow-up project.