ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY NEEDS AND EXPERIENCES OF FAMILY CAREGIVERS

Family caregivers provide 75% of care needed for individuals with disabilities to remain in their communities. Many family caregivers in Canada experience negative health, social and financial outcomes. Innovative solutions (or interventions) are needed that can ameliorate the deleterious aspects of caregiving and foster positive ones. Therefore, we conducted a study with the following objectives: (i) to identify the specific needs of family caregivers, especially aspects of caregiving situations that caregivers find most difficult to manage or would like improved; and (ii) to identify preferences and priorities of caregivers for the development of technological solutions to address these areas. We conducted qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of 47 family caregivers of older adults or older adults who are family caregivers. Participant age ranged from 43 to 76, with a mean age of 63, and 75% were women. Our analysis identified three main themes: i) caregiver responsibilities explored their day-to-day caregiving activities; ii) strategies to address identified technologies that could potentially help caregiver needs; and iii) caregiver challenges revealed the physical and psychological struggles associated with caregiving. These findings emphasize the complexity of care provision, problems identifying and accessing solutions, and the need to develop effective and innovative approaches. This study offers a framework for future user-centred design research that involves caregivers as active partners. Our findings will inform the development of novel interventions and support policy changes to make care provision easier.