Technology rolling out for Victorian seniors

Care provider, Southern Cross Care Victoria, has been giving Monash residents ipods on which to listen to calming music.

The mobile music devices are proving useful in helping to calm and soothe nursing home residents with dementia.

Dementia care consultant, Ben Gatehouse, said iPods were better for people with dementia than traditional music therapy programs because they could walk around and still listen to the iPods wrote Emma Schmidt in the Waverley Leader.

“People with dementia often like to wander or walk around their environment,” Mr Gatehouse said.

“With an iPod, they don’t have to sit still to listen to their music.”

By recording messages and stories, relatives and friends can store messages on the device so that a familiar voice is always close at hand.

“Some people might not be able to follow what the person is talking about, but they might recognise their daughter’s voice speaking in a calm way,” he said.

“We believe it might make them feel more secure and relaxed, and less confused and disoriented.”

Southern Cross Care is fundraising to purchase more iPods for their residents in what they believe will be an Australian first.

In a similar light, under a new Brumby Labor government program, Victorian nurses and graduate doctors will use mobile, wireless iPad technology in hospitals.

Health Minister, Daniel Andrews, announced $500,000 for a pilot program that will deliver 500 iPads in January 2011 for graduate doctors in medicine, nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses to use while treating patients in hospital.

“The iPads will allow doctors and nurses to access any web-enabled application run by their hospital as they move around the hospital, as well as allowing them to tap into health information resources,” he said.

“The iPads will connect via the wi-fi networks that allow secure, safe wireless connectivity within the hospital while not affecting other important and sensitive electronic patient care equipment.

“It makes sense that with the burgeoning use of and reliance on technology and technological aids in health, the way health professionals go about delivering health services will be influenced by access to new technology,” he said.

“The younger group of students and graduates of the health professions have grown up with technology all around them.

“It is these young graduates that will be at the forefront of the introduction of a range of technology-based changes to the way patient information, diagnostics and treatments are performed and recorded.”

The pilot will be assessed before being rolled out statewide.