Context Awareness in Communication around Fall Handling with PERS

Abstract

Assuring timely intervention after falls is important to enable older adults to live independently for a longer time. There are two strategies where technology could assist timely intervention: 1) automated fall detection and 2) handling of falls - the process of sending help to a fall victim - using a personal emergency response system (PERS). This paper presents first insights on using sensors not only on the patient’s side but also on the caregiver side. We present the results of two studies that were part of a more encompassing approach to improve fall handling and draw conclusions based on these results. The first study investigated the willingness of informal caregivers to (automatically) share information that can influence timely fall handling. Based on the results, a prototype of a fall handling system was made. The second study evaluated the prototype with the different types of users that would use this system. Results indicate that while the envisioned users were in general open to context-aware fall handling, fall-back scenarios need to be present because the needed technology may not be available to all users at the same time and some people might not be able or willing to use the technology.