Questo studio realizzato dal Centro Studi e Ricerche Economico-Sociali per l'Invecchiamento (CRESI) dell'IRCSS INRCA per conto del Comitato per il Controllo e la Valutazione delle Politiche afferente al Consiglio Regionale delle Marche, nasce con l'obiettivo di valutare il gradimento degli interventi e dei servizi socio-sanitari esistenti da parte degli anziani non autosufficienti e delle loro famiglie (caregiver). L'indagine, realizzata con la collaborazione delle organizzazioni sindacali dei pensionati FNP-CISL, SPI-CGIL e UILP-UIL, ha consentito di raggiungere 450 nuclei familiari distribuiti nei 13 distretti sanitari della regione Marche, scattando una "fotografia" dell'esistente, al fine di poter fornire indicazioni e raccomandazioni sulla riorganizzazione dei servizi rivolti a questa fascia di popolazione, anche alla luce dei recenti impulsi pervenuti dall'adozione del "Piano nazionale per la non autosufficienza". L'indagine si è svolta in due tranche. Nella prima, condotta nel periodo novembre 2019 – marzo 2020, è stato raccolto il quadro dettagliato del punto di vista degli anziani assistiti e dei loro famigliari caregiver. Nella seconda, svoltasi nel periodo giugno-agosto 2020, è stato realizzato un follow-up telefonico, mirato a cogliere l'impatto dell'epidemia da Covid-19 sui partecipanti della prima rilevazione, al fine di comprendere come l'emergenza sanitaria abbia influito sulle condizioni di vita e sull'assistenza ricevuta da questi anziani e dalle loro famiglie, onde poter meglio riorganizzare i servizi per la fase post-pandemica.
17.06.2020. BACKGROUND: Informal carers have a crucial role in the care of older people, but they are at risk of social isolation and psychological exhaustion. Web-based services like apps and websites are increasingly used to support informal carers in addressing some of their needs and tasks, such as health monitoring of their loved ones, information and communication, and stress management. Despite the growing number of available solutions, the lack of knowledge or skills of carers about the solutions often prevent their usage. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to review and select apps and websites offering functionalities useful for informal carers of frail adults or older people in 5 European countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden). METHODS: A systematic online search was conducted from January 2017 to mid-March 2017 using selected keywords, followed by an assessment based on a set of commonly agreed criteria and standardized tools. Selected resources were rated and classified in terms of scope. Focus groups with informal carers were conducted to validate the list and the classification of resources. The activities were conducted in parallel in the participating countries using common protocols and guidelines, a standardization process, and scheduled group discussions. RESULTS: From a total of 406 eligible resources retrieved, 138 apps and 86 websites met the inclusion criteria. Half of the selected resources (109/224, 48.7%) were disease-specific, and the remaining resources included information and utilities on a variety of themes. Only 38 resources (38/224, 17.0%) were devoted specifically to carers, addressing the management of health disturbances and diseases of the care recipient and focusing primarily on neurodegenerative diseases. Focus groups with the carers showed that almost all participants had no previous knowledge of any resource specifically targeting carers, even if interest was expressed towards carer-focused resources. The main barriers for using the resources were low digital skills of the carers and reliability of health-related apps and websites. Results of the focus groups led to a new taxonomy of the resources, comprising 4 categories: carer's wellbeing, managing health and diseases of the care recipient, useful contacts, and technologies for eldercare. CONCLUSIONS: The review process allowed the identification of online resources of good quality. However, these resources are still scarce due to a lack of reliability and usability that prevent users from properly benefiting from most of the resources. The involvement of end users provided added value to the resource classification and highlighted the gap between the potential benefits from using information and communication technologies and the real use of online resources by carers. ; This study was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, under the Project "Apps for carers", Grant Agreement n. 2016-1-SE01-KA204-022067. This study was partially supported by Ricerca Corrente funding from the Italian Ministry of Health to IRCCS INRCA.
