Haufe Marc, Peek Sebastiaan Theodorus Michaël, Luijkx Katrien Ger
Department of Tranzo, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2019 Jan 11;19(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3848-5.
Most seniors wish to live independently for as long as possible. Gerontechnologies such as personal alarms or remote control systems, have the potential to help them age in place. For seniors, assessing what is the most appropriate technology for their aging in place needs can be difficult. Professionals specifically tasked with matching seniors' needs with technology solutions can greatly help here. Yet not much is known about the challenges these professionals face or how they can optimize their matchmaking service.
Participatory action research was conducted in the Netherlands, in two phases. In phase one, ten matchmaking dialogues between municipal technology consultants and seniors were observed, followed by interviews with both technology consultants and seniors to understand the current matchmaking service. In phase two, a new matchmaking tool was co-created with technology consultants and other professionals over the course of four co-creation session. Variants of the tool were tested out in nine additional matchmaking dialogues. The Cycle of Technology Acquirement by Independent-Living Seniors (C-TAILS) model, which can be used to understand both origins and consequences of technology acquirement by independent-living seniors, was used as a theoretical lens.
Important challenges for municipal technology consultants in their current matchmaking practice are: making the matchmaking service more demand oriented and creating an accurate and complete overview of relevant factors within the seniors' individual situation so that an optimal match can be made. Together with technology consultants and other professionals, a new Gerontechnologies Matchmaking (GTM) tool was created to help overcome these challenges. Evaluation of the tool showed that it better includes each senior's personal, social, physical and technological context, within the matchmaking service.
Professionals who help seniors match gerontechnology to their aging in place needs experience a variety of challenges in the delivery of their service. Currently, few tools are available for them to overcome these challenges. The newly developed GTM tool can help overcome challenges and optimize matchmaking services. Further testing of the tool in different contexts is needed to determine its generalizability.
大多数老年人希望尽可能长时间地独立生活。诸如个人警报器或遥控系统等老年技术有潜力帮助他们居家养老。对于老年人来说，评估哪种技术最适合他们的居家养老需求可能很困难。专门负责将老年人的需求与技术解决方案相匹配的专业人员在这方面能提供很大帮助。然而，对于这些专业人员面临的挑战以及他们如何优化匹配服务，我们了解得并不多。
在荷兰分两个阶段开展了参与式行动研究。在第一阶段，观察了市政技术顾问与老年人之间的十次匹配对话，随后对技术顾问和老年人进行了访谈，以了解当前的匹配服务。在第二阶段，在四次共创会议过程中，与技术顾问和其他专业人员共同创建了一种新的匹配工具。该工具的不同版本在另外九次匹配对话中进行了测试。独立生活老年人技术获取周期（C-TAILS）模型可用于理解独立生活老年人技术获取的起源和后果，被用作理论视角。
市政技术顾问当前在匹配实践中面临的重要挑战包括：使匹配服务更以需求为导向，以及对老年人个人情况中的相关因素进行准确、全面的概述，以便做出最佳匹配。与技术顾问和其他专业人员一起，创建了一种新的老年技术匹配（GTM）工具来帮助克服这些挑战。对该工具的评估表明，它在匹配服务中能更好地纳入每位老年人的个人、社会、身体和技术背景。
帮助老年人将老年技术与他们的居家养老需求相匹配的专业人员在提供服务时面临各种挑战。目前，可供他们克服这些挑战的工具很少。新开发的GTM工具有助于克服挑战并优化匹配服务。需要在不同背景下对该工具进行进一步测试，以确定其通用性。
