Volunteers’ Support of Carers of Rural People Living with Dementia to Use a Custom-Built Application

Clare Wilding, Hilary Davis, Tshepo Rasekaba, Mohammad Hamiduzzaman, Kayla Royals, Jennene Greenhill, Megan E. O’Connell, David Perkins, Michael Bauer, Debra Morgan and Irene Blackberry
Additional contact information
Clare Wilding: John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe University, Wodonga 3689, Australia
Hilary Davis: Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University, Melbourne 3122, Australia
Tshepo Rasekaba: John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe University, Wodonga 3689, Australia
Mohammad Hamiduzzaman: Department of Rural Health, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2430, Australia
Kayla Royals: John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe University, Wodonga 3689, Australia
Jennene Greenhill: College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Renmark 5341, Australia
Megan E. O’Connell: Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E4, Canada
David Perkins: Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, The University of Newcastle, Orange 2800, Australia
Michael Bauer: Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3083, Australia
Debra Morgan: Department of Medicine, Canadian Centre for Health & Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada
Irene Blackberry: John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe University, Wodonga 3689, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-9

Abstract: There is great potential for human-centred technologies to enhance wellbeing for people living with dementia and their carers. The Virtual Dementia Friendly Rural Communities (Verily Connect) project aimed to increase access to information, support, and connection for carers of rural people living with dementia, via a co-designed, integrated website/mobile application (app) and Zoom videoconferencing. Volunteers were recruited and trained to assist the carers to use the Verily Connect app and videoconferencing. The overall research design was a stepped wedge open cohort randomized cluster trial involving 12 rural communities, spanning three states of Australia, with three types of participants: carers of people living with dementia, volunteers, and health/aged services staff. Data collected from volunteers ( n = 39) included eight interviews and five focus groups with volunteers, and 75 process memos written by research team members. The data were analyzed using a descriptive evaluation framework and building themes through open coding, inductive reasoning, and code categorization. The volunteers reported that the Verily Connect app was easy to use and they felt they derived benefit from volunteering. The volunteers had less volunteering work than they desired due to low numbers of carer participants; they reported that older rural carers were partly reluctant to join the trial because they eschewed using online technologies, which was the reason for involving volunteers from each local community.

Keywords: rural; dementia; older adults; carers; online technology; volunteer; qualitative research; digital literacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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