The Portrait System for Care Staff of People with Dementia

Lead Research Organisation: University of Dundee
Department Name: School of Computing

Abstract

Dementia is a growing concern worldwide, with an estimated 35.6 million people living with dementia. As the population ages, this number will soar. The care of people with dementia has recently been receiving a great deal of consideration as it has become recognised that current care solutions too often are not meeting the standard of care that most of us would want for loved ones. The Portrait system is designed to help care staff see the whole person not simply as a set of service needs, but rather as an individual. In this goal, it is a part of the welcomed trend of care-giving that seeks to move away from task-based care to person-centred care.

Portrait addresses the needs of the growing population of people in care homes. The work takes a novel approach to this area by focusing on care-givers, addressing the need to facilitate conversations between care staff and residents. For residents with communication difficulties, such as those that arise from late stage Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, it is difficult for care staff, givien their limited time and skills, to initiate conversations with such residents. The Portrait system was designed from the perspective of care staff. It provides an easy to use and quick means of getting information about the lives of residents before they entered the care home. In short, it allows care staff to know who the people are.

The Portrait system is the culmination of a research and development effort by the project researcher, Dr Gemma Webster, in which the Portrait software was created to act as a communication bridge between carers and people with dementia through the use of simple but effective 'Portraits'. To date, much research and several commercial offerings have aimed at memory books and reminiscence therapy for people with dementia. Like our Portrait software, many of these use multimedia software. While these memory tools might be shared with care staff, none were specifically designed to meet the needs of care staff. Portrait is unique in terms of specifically targeting the work schedules and usability needs of care staff.

The Portrait system consists of multimedia portraits of each care home resident presented on an easily and quickly accessible touch-screen interface. Informed by background research on what people would like care staff to know about them if they went into a care home facility, each portrait contains information about the person's family, key life events, preferences and hobbies or interests. The system has been tested with staff from two care homes and was well-received in terms of providing the care staff with quick and easy access to usable information about residents.

Early work on Portrait had impact in terms of both use at a care home, community engagement, and an award for social implications. This Telling Tales project will be used to provide greater impact. The Portrait software will be installed at additional care homes in the UK and commercial licencing will be pursued.

Planned Impact

Dementia care, currently estimated to cost the UK £17 billion per year, is becoming increasingly important as the population ages. An important aspect of care considerations is the recognition that the current care solutions are too often not meeting the standard of care that most of us would want for loved ones. This Portrait project impacts society by being a part of the welcome trend of moving away from task-based care to person centred care. The aim is to help staff see the whole person, not just the illness.

The impact of this Telling Tales project is expected to be both wide and deep. As broad impact, Portrait can be expected to be used with large numbers of people through the commercialization made possible by Telling Tales. As a deep impact, this work can be expected to positively affect health and well-being of the individual lives of care home residents.

The will be three specific pathways to impact. The first will be through the installation of the Portrait system in six care homes in the UK. Not only are the individual residents at these homes expected to benefit, but also through the use of these care homes we can expect publicity for the Portrait project. We have had considerable interest in this project from the press since the Telling Tales announcement, and we will select care homes that are interested in working with us to get out the story about this software.

The second pathway to impact will be commercialisation of Portrait. We have already received enquires from three vendors who specialise in solutions for care homes. As Portrait serves a unique need, there is considerable interest in adoption of this technology. We have already begun negotiations with these vendors through our university research transfer office. These discussions will continue throughout the Telling Tales funding period, with the goal of a completed licencing agreement by project end.

Finally, we expect a third pathway to impact to be public engagement. We will seek opportunities to discuss Portrait with the lay public. As mentioned, we will work with our project partners to publicise this work with dementia. Also, Portrait is already included as a Case Study on the Digital Economy SiDE Hub website. As part of this Telling Tales effort, we will continue to update that Case Study as well as to update Portrait's web presence through video. In addition, an important aspect of public engagement will be public lectures by Prof Hanson and Dr Webster. For example, the University of Dundee hosts one of the longest and most successful series of public lectures in the UK and has hundreds of local people attending each event. In addition, we have strong links with our local science centre, Sensation, which hosts a large number of events for public engagement such as Café Science. Talks at public lectures such as these are anticipated. Notably, for Portrait the researcher, Dr Webster, won the 2009 British Science Festival Perspective Scheme competition for social implications of research. This competition involved engaging with the general public.

Publications

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Webster G (2013) Portraits of people with dementia: three case studies of creating portraits. in American journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias

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Webster G (2014) Technology for Supporting Care Staff in Residential Homes in ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

 
Description The Portrait system is a useful conversation-starter for care home workers looking to spark a chat with residents. A simple conversation can make all the difference to a person's day, especially in care environments. However, many care home residents have communication difficulties arising from conditions such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Portrait's software stores important information about each patient, giving staff easy access to details about the resident's life. This could include names of friends and relatives, notable life events, hobbies, interests and tastes. This information is presented on a touch-screen interface, which can be accessed by clicking on a portrait of the resident in question. It is specifically designed to meet the needs of care staff, allowing them to absorb a range of information in less than three minutes.

Continuing with testing in care homes throughout the UK, this system enables staff to build a better relationships with care home residents.
Exploitation Route There have been conversations with providers of medical care about incorporating Portrait's type of information into larger medical systems.
Sectors Healthcare

URL http://www.side.ac.uk/accessibility/case-studies/portrait
 
Description Care staff, those who attend to the day-to-day needs of people in residential facilities, represent an important segment of the health-care provision of those entrusted to their care. The potential use of technology by care staff traditionally has not been a focus of researcher attention. With Portrait we provide initial steps in addressing that gap, considering both the design requirements for this population and presentation of early work on a software system for use by care staff. Our work provided the development of a software tool for use by care staff, called Portrait, and examined factors affecting technology use by this population. The results of this research are promising, with Portrait being very positively received by care managers and care staff. Use of this software in a care home for over a month indicated continued use, with care staff returning to the system throughout the test period. The contributions of this research are the identification of factors important in working with a care staff population, the introduction and evaluation of a novel software tool for care staff in residential homes, and the highlighting of potential benefits of technology in assisting care staff. Use in additional care homes is beginning and discussions of technology transfer are currently underway.
First Year Of Impact 2013
Sector Healthcare
Impact Types Societal

 
Description Department of Health (2014). Creative caring: Portrait. Research and development work relating to assistive technology. Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Crown, UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/336428/S22_Report_2013-14.pdf (Accessed July 2014).
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
 
Description BESiDE
Amount £1,648,488 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/K037293/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2013 
End 03/2017
 
Description dot.rural Knowledge Exchange
Amount £68,168 (GBP)
Organisation Research Councils UK (RCUK) 
Department dot.rural
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2015 
End 09/2015
 
Title Portrait 
Description Portrait is a web-based application designed to provide salient personal preferences and life history information to professional care givers. Portrait is used by care staff to gain an understanding of people's lives prior to entering care. Portrait lets the families of those in care environments share pictures, important life events, hobbies, interests and preferences with Care Staff to help them learn more about the person they care for. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2013 
Impact Portrait has been demonstrated to a number of care facilities and local authorities to promote its use within care settings. Portrait has been in use a care home for over 3 years. 
URL http://ourbigportrait.com
 
Description Aberdeen City Council meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meetings with Aberdeen City Council to discuss use of Portrait within their care services
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
 
Description Alzheimer Scotland Meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Various meetings with Alzheimer Scotland to discuss promoting the Portrait project and forming partnerships for further work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015,2016
 
Description Balhousie Care group Meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Meetings with Balhousie Care group to discuss the use of Portrait within their care facilities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2014,2015
 
Description Dundee City Council meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting with Dundee City Council to discuss use of portrait within their care facilities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Meeting with Lancashire County Council 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting with Lancashire county council to promote Portrait and discuss use of system in council care facilities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Multiple visits to Care Homes ( across UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact Multiple visits to care homes and care facilities to promote the Portrait project. Visits were conducted with care managers and practitioners, Charities (e.g. Alzheimer Scotland, age concern), families of people with dementia, carers and patient groups. The meetings lead to lots of discussions and further meetings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012,2013,2014,2015,2016
 
Description Practitioners Presentation (Lancashire County Council) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 10 representatives from Lancashire County Council attended a presentation about Portrait. The attendees included councilors, GP's and Care home managers. Questions and discussions were held and follow on meetings were scheduled.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012