Supporting older persons and their caregivers’ digital inclusion in Qatari and Arab Families
Funded by QNRF and DIFI | OSRA5-0415-20006
The aim of this project is to examine the experiences of older persons and their caregivers in the local context, and to explore their perspectives on ICT, in supporting caregiving tasks and the independent living of older persons living at home. In this project, we will address the following research questions, focusing on older persons and their caregivers: What are the opportunities for ICT to support daily activity participation and social inclusion of older persons and their caregivers, and what are the challenges, concerns, and enablers for ICT access and use to meet these opportunities? We will conduct semi-structured interviews that include open-ended questions related to the study objectives, enabling participants to freely describe their perspectives and experiences. We will create an advisory committee in which we will discuss with the results of the interviews analysis. The research will directly benefit the academic community, governments and nongovernmental organizations. This project will result in substantial insight, not previously available, about the perspectives and experiences of older persons and their caregivers with respect to ICT, their views on opportunities afforded by ICT, and how ICT and other technological advances can both support social inclusion for these groups and address concerns about daily activity participation and social inclusion. Research directions arising from this project may include, among other topics, exploration of service design at the level of governments and the ICT industry to best support ICT use by older persons and their caregivers. The Qatari government at various levels and non-profit and community organizations such as Mada (Assistive Technology Center) and Center for Empowerment and Care of the older persons (Ehsan), who are both engaged in this project at collaborative institutes, will gain more evidence of their service users’ needs, and challenges experienced, thus enabling them to make strategic plans to address service and policy deficiencies. This research will be conducted in collaboration with the University of Ottawa-Canada. The project will enlist the support of the AGE-WELL NCE, Canada’s leading technology and aging network, through advising the research team and research outcome dissemination.