Managing flexible care with a context aware system for ageing-in-place

This paper describes the Care4Balance (C4B) system for better facilitating communication and task coordination between formal and informal caregivers, and older adults as care receivers. Field-tests with older adults (n=3) and user studies (n=9) were conducted to evaluate the system and the perceived usefulness of the system. A review of related work and the study findings show that (1) the perceived benefit for the older target group was very low. The main motivation for using the system was triggered by the perceived benefit for their closest informal caregivers; (2) Informal caregivers do not regularly seek help for themselves, and (3) Introducing a C4B-like system is more than solving hardware and usability issues. The study suggests that more flexibility in the organizational structure of formal care (in The Netherlands and beyond) is needed.