Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate implementation of tablet-based remote support for female in-home caregivers in sparsely populated rural areas and to determine the effectiveness of that support. Remote support was delivered to 2 women providing in-home care through counseling sessions about caregiving conducted over the Hangouts app on a 10.5-inch ipad Pro® for 1 year. The topics on which caregivers were counseled during this year of remote support were “excretion management for the care recipient,” “responding to the care recipient’s words and actions,” “confusion about the care recipient’s symptoms,” “selection of a long-term care service,” and “cooperative family caregiving programs.” Semi-structured interviews about the tablet-based remote support were conducted after the support period ended. Participants were asked about (1) operating the tablet and (2) whether the sessions changed their caregiving practices. Interviews were recorded with a digital voice recorder and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed qualitatively using the approach of Mayring (2000). The 4 categories developed were “expectations for instantaneous support methods,” “adaptation to using a tablet,” “changes in perception of caregiving,” and “getting time to talk about their own caregiving.” Participants’ perception of caregiving changed through tablet-based remote support because they could receive professional support with reassurance that comes from seeing the person’s face. In addition, participants were quick to adapt to using a tablet because the application was simple to use even for older caregivers, and they had expectations for instantaneous support methods.
