Programme introduction
Golden Age Foundation launched the third phase of the "Smart Care Lab" programme in April 2024. Different from the first and second phases of the programme, which focus on improving the operational service level of residential care homes for the elderly, this phase of the project will shift the focus to "ageing in place" services, introduce experiments related to cognitive impairment and rehabilitation treatment, and apply them to home care services, aiming to provide an appropriate home care service model. This model will make full use of the human resources of the golden agers and combine it with relevant smart ageing technology applications to provide reference and operational direction for home care services.
This programme, funded by the Bright Future Charitable Foundation, focuses on introducing a "social prescribing" model to serve home caregivers and their families with cognitive impairment or stroke sequelae, and at the same time training the golden agers and students to join the elderly-related industries. It promotes the smart-age care grade to help create new impetus for human resources.
Programme content
Remedies for physical and mental - "Social Prescribing"
- Companion Doll "Golden Baby": The clinical method of "Doll Therapy" designed by the Smart Care Lab 2.0 is applied to provide home care services to the elderly with moderate or severe cognitive impairment.
- Hand Rehabilitation: Stroke patients often suffer from skill regression due to lack of consistent rehabilitation. The simple version of the home robotic arm allows the elderly to perform self-training at home.
- Cognitive Training App: It uses an interesting and interactive game method to collect, record and analyse player data with artificial intelligence to help patients with dementia monitor their condition in the game and detect and prevent dementia early.
- "AI": Life memoirs are often used in cognitive training for the elderly. Using AI technology, the memoirs are no longer just written records, but also equipped with audio navigation, which is valuable to the elderly and future generations.
New force in the labour market – Smart Care Worker
The programme recruited and trained 50 golden agers (referring to those over 45 years old) to become "Smart Care Worker" to provide "Social Prescribing" service support to the elderly who are ageing at home. The programme's professional team provides training and employment opportunities, allowing them to add new impetus to the labour market. At the same time, we will continue to communicate and strengthen cooperation with nursing homes, industries, technology companies and the government, such as exploring the feasibility of setting up "Smart Care Worker" with the Employees Retraining Board, recognising the golden agers, and developing the golden agers to become a "new force in the labour market" rather than "the new force of volunteers".
Introducing new blood – Internships for students from different departments
The programme has also specially designed an "internship programme" that allows students from different departments to practice. During their internship, students are paired with senior nurses to gain valuable experience and professional guidance. Through interaction with the elderly, we can think and understand elderly care services from multiple perspectives and learn people-centered application methods of smart age technology.
Personnel training
The programme encourages practitioners in the elderly care industry to learn using smart age technologies to improve service quality and enhance competitiveness.