De Witte, L.

Objective: Detecting changes in activity performance by persons living at home may provide to be a powerful tool to support them to live independently. To this end a new care arrangement had to be developed in which commercial available technology is used by a homecare organization and informal carers. The objective of this study is a) to organize the conditions needed to deliver care support to people living independently and b) to investigate the effectiveness thereof.

Sustaining independent living for elderly people in their own homes is desirable for various reasons. As older people become frail or disabled, a ‘gap’ appears between the abilities they still have and the abilities that are required for independent living. To a certain extent robots may close this gap by providing functionality lost through frailty or disability. A scenario was created involving a re-enablement coach robot. This scenario was discussed with older people, informal carers, and care professionals in focus groups in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France.