A year or so ago myself and Trish (wife) were asked by Denise Brown of Caregiving.com and Rajiv Mehta of Atlas of Caregiving if we would keep a diary or a log of sorts of all out daily activities, mainly focusing on those that related to our caregiving duties. It was a surprise when my log exceeded six pages and went on into page nine. The duties included, housekeeping chores, they are related to mine and Roberts care so they go in the log, meals, restroom breaks, showers, and bed making, even walking and feeding the dogs, because we care for them, right? This information was used by Denise to show where all of a caregiver’s time is spent and to give a more exact accounting of what all goes into caring for someone. It was an eye opener to say the least.
This year Rajiv Mehta, Board member of Family Caregiver Alliance and Principal Investigator for Atlas of Caregiving, has been working with Denise Brown of CareGiving.com again to create a new set of logs with more data obtained then last year’s test. O And of course Trish and I were more than happy to relive the experience. To start off, let’s say, STAGE I “WHO ARE WE?” This is where Rajiv and his associate Dawn supplied us with a 4-6 page survey which covered who we are, who we cared for, were there animals also in the home that needed care, what our perception of time was that we spent caring for each person, total amount of time, etc. This gave them more or less a baseline of where to start.
Then STAGE II “SET UP,” They came by the house and provided us with a 60-75 min overview of what all was involved, the various sensors, logs, what our thoughts were, what devices (Fitbit, etc.) do we currently use and what do see as the benefit from them? Then it was set up time. We were out fitted with a watch of sorts which monitored steps, mileage, activity, times asleep, etc., then a second watch which actually told time, and it also monitored our heart rates, perspiration levels on our wrist which noted how stressed we were, and more. The final this we were set up with was a camera approximately 1” (+/-) square that just clipped onto our shirt which takes a quick photo approximately every 30 – 60 seconds. The house was also outfitted with environmental sensors which picked up the temperature, humidity, etc. and finally movement sensors that were placed, near our front door, in the kitchen, hall way, master bedroom door area, Robert’s bedroom door area, dining room and in the hall way in front of his bathroom. These sensors are able to tell Rajiv and Dawn what our movement patterns were.
Stage III “The Test” For 24hrs we wore all the technology, wrote down our every movement, break, nap, channel change, meal, snack, restroom run, shower, Starbucks run (Hey, that’s caregiving to the caregiver) and basket of laundry and trust me, there was more. After which came Rajiv’s and Dawn’s job, STAGE IV “WHAT HAPPENED?” They now had to take all of the data we gave them and that from all of the sensors which included (3) standard watches, (2) personal sensor watches, (3) mini cameras which each captured approximately 8,500 – 10,000 photos, (2) environmental sensors and (7-8) movement sensors, and put it all together into three separate reports of sorts and determine if when we put down we were stressed at some point, what was happening at that point, what do the photos show at that time, do the sensors agree with our posting, etc. Now remember this, the camera is just snapping photos randomly and many of them may be of a wall, ceiling, floor, maybe the TV, or if you forgot to take it off when you went into the rest room, “WOW” too much info.
Anyway, we are only a couple of the first ones to volunteer for this study and Rajiv has provided us with a brief introduction into the study and what they are looking for:
Share your experience of day-to-day caregiving to help Family Caregiver Alliance advocate for new technologies, improved services, and better policies to make caregiving easier and more effective. The goal of the Atlas of Caregiving project is to better understand the physical and emotional impact and time of providing care, in the hopes that we can use the data collected to impact change. We are seeking family caregivers, in the San Francisco Bay Area, who actively provide day-to-day care (chores, companionship, medical activities, etc.) to a family member or friend due to their illness or disability. Project participants are interviewed about their caregiving situation, and keep a log of their activities and wear a couple of small sensors for a day. Participants will be compensated $200. Get more details about participation here.
Rajiv and Dawn were amazing to work with, we were informed of each of the various devices, their function, data that would be obtained and how it would be used. At the final meeting they gave a wonderful presentation as to the information they recovered, how it related to what we had wrote down. Ways this information could be used going forward and more. If you are a caregiver I would urge you to try and find the time to work this into your schedule, the products that can come out of all of this information will be nothing but amazing.
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