Symposium IV : Rehabilitation related to electronic devices
The support by Assistive technology for the patients with cognitive impairments
2016 Volume 36 Issue 3 Pages 384-391
Details
2016 Volume 36 Issue 3 Pages 384-391
Recently, the progress of everyday technology (ET) like home electronics is noticeable, that have multifunctional, high functionally and convenient value.
On the other hand, there are less benefits for the patients with cognitive impairments due to the distance pace of progress of ET. They are confused of how to use these ET, therefore it increases the care burden of caregivers.
We have visited the elderly people and the clients with higher brain dysfunctions /dementia at their own home, and researched the usage conditions of ET by using Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire (ETUQ) that was developed by Rosenberg and Nygård.
We have found that even normal elderly have trouble with new ET, and there were two reasons of discontinuing using these ET;one of them is the change of their lifestyles and the other one is the decrease of their cognitive functions.
The people with dementia are unable to the procedure of using ET and a lot of them were using the old ET. Furthermore we have researched usage of ET of the case of Gersmannʼs syndrome for over 4 years by ETUQ. She still has difficulties with the ET which are necessary to understand the meaning of the numbers or letters for operating.
Through our survey to the patients with cognitive impairments, we had introduced Assistive technology such as;easy-to-use TV remote control, loitering prevention sensor and memory aid application.
