Achieving lifestyle aspirations through assisted living technology

Against a background of known cognitive and physical decline in older adults is an agenda that aims to develop technologies that are intended to support their day-to-day life, allowing them to maintain their independence and live at home for longer. Yet uptake of such new technologies has been relatively poor and in part we see this as due to poor integration between the new technologies and existing services. The aim of this project is to develop a technology solution that (i) supports independent living but that is (ii) is properly integrated with existing services for older adults and (iii) fits the personal aspirations of individual older adults. To understand all three perspectives, the project is utilising an iterative approach to creating and evaluating future scenarios. These scenarios illustrate the role of technologies in supporting everyday living, rather than focus on the technological design. A core set of scenarios were developed and refined, with input from user advocacy groups, including Quality of Life Partnership and Northern Rock Foundation and input from service providers including Newcastle City Council. The scenarios then formed the basis for group discussion in a series of older-adult focus groups. The output from these discussions was a better understanding of the aspirations of older adults and a more critical sense of the classes of technologies that may support those aspirations.