7/25/19 · Health

The UVic-UCC and the UOC develop an app to provide support to Alzheimer's patient caregivers

Estic amb tu creates caregiver communities to share knowledge
Foto: UOC

Foto: UOC

The University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), together with the company Confluència Solucions en Convergència Digital i Mobilitat, SL, have created a tool to improve the quality of life of informal Alzheimer's patient caregivers. This tool is in fact an app that allows family caregivers of Alzheimer's patients to  create virtual communities of practice. There they can make contact with each other and share knowledge and experiences to improve their quality of life. It is also a way for them to palliate the caregiver disorder by improving information, providing social support and offering coping strategies.

More than 50 people, divided into two groups, have been trialling this app over a period of 10 months. The first group consisted solely of caregivers and an expert who acted as moderator. The second group consisted of 22 caregivers and three moderators who were healthcare professionals. In both cases, the caregivers rated the experience very positively, as they felt supported, and asked for it to be continued. Consequently, the next goal is to promote the app among caregiver associations and foundations that work with Alzheimer's patients.

The app, called "Estic amb tu" (I'm with you), was developed for the company Confluència Solucions en Convergència Digital i Mobilitat, SL as part of a doctoral thesis being prepared by Montse Romero Mas at the UVic-UCC Doctoral School. Anna Ramon Aribau from the UVic-UCC, and Beni Gómez-Zúñiga, a researcher at the UOC's Psychology, Health and the Net (PSiNET) research group, supervised the thesis. All four parties signed a co-authorship agreement, formalizing the outcome of a cooperative project that was presented at the 2019 Mobile World Congress. 

The app seeks to give a social use to research carried out on an increasingly prevalent chronic disease, Alzheimer's disease, and focuses on the informal caregiver, also commonly known as the invisible patient.

The name "Estic amb tu" was proposed by 3rd-year primary school pupils at the Escola Sant Genís i Santa Agnès in Taradell, during the "emotions workshop" shared with the researchers, who connected them with the caregivers. The logo was developed by the graphic designer Guillem Lluch. 

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