HAAL (HeAlthy Ageing eco-system for peopLe with dementia) is a collaborative project involving Dutch and international partners within the Active and Assisted Living programme (AAL). The aim is to support people with dementia, their loved ones and care professionals during the different stages of dementia by deploying multiple care and well-being technologies in an AAL bundle.
Living with dementia is challenging, not only for the person with the disease but also for those tasked with looking after them. One of the main challenges facing care givers and practitioners is how to anticipate and prepare for the patient’s needs as the disease progresses. Often, the progression of a person’s condition is dependent on their health history and lifestyle, and not everyone has the same needs as they move through the various stages.
The technologies in the AAL bundle have been developed within previous projects and can provide support in areas such as, social contact, memory aids, training, rehabilitation, monitoring and entertainment.
Vilans Senior Researcher, Henk Herman Nap is the project manager and coordinator:
“We plan to work with people with dementia, care professionals, family members and providers to select the healthcare technologies from the AAL bundle based on demand and need. We will then try them out within a healthcare setting and gather experiences from the different target groups.”
Co-creation, best practices and an AI-based dashboard
The project will run from May 2021 to 2023. People with dementia, their relatives and the care professionals are the focal point for the testing, development and the design. During this period, the team will co-create with these groups to assess the bundle of selected technologies, learn from best practices and eventually develop an online platform that offers the most useful solutions for dementia care.
In addition to Vilans, the members of the consortium are Taiwan, Italy, Denmark and Austria. The municipality of Haarlemmermeer, as well as care organisations, Amstelring, Cordaan and Compaan will also join in the research.
