Empowering Wellness: Design Thinking for Assistive Technology in Long-term Care

This project, a collaboration between Red Deer Polytechnic and Bethany Care Society, aimed to support the well-being of young adult long-term care (LTC) residents by leveraging design thinking principles in a care enhancement initiative integrating meaningful resident consultation and collaboration. Design thinking is a human-centered problem-solving approach which offers a framework for creative engagement and collaboration, allowing residents to become co-creators of their care experience. Design thinking workshops were implemented to facilitate the communication of resident needs and, subsequently, the effective integration of these into assistive technology (AT). Six young adult residents completed standardized assessments of well-being before and after the workshops and subsequent assistive technology integration sessions, in addition to completing an open-ended post-intervention interview. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated a positive impact on well-being, suggesting that active participation in identifying needs and brainstorming and prototyping solutions contributed to an enhanced sense of autonomy and purpose and improved overall well-being while promoting the effective use of AT. Funding for this project was made available by the Institute for Continuing Care Education and Research (ICCER)