Lifecare Assistance in Ried im Innkreis

In Austria, as in many other countries, the older population continues to grow. Often elderly people prefer staying in their own homes for as long as they can, and only move into a nursing home at a later stage in their lives or only if need be. However, to respond to this important and understandable request for independence, family members and informal caregivers have to take on challenging responsibilities. Our project aims to support these individuals in home care for elderly people.

Healthcare and Nursing Physiotherapy Research and Development

Term: 01.06.2022 — 31.12.2025

LICA App’s aim is to support family and informal caregivers by empowering them in their daily activities through assisting in more effective organisation, communication, documentation, etc. The app is intended to facilitate long-term support of continuous high-quality care for ageing people with individual needs at home.

The professional version of the app allows institutional caregivers and other professionals in the health care system to improve communication, documentation, and collaboration. As a research partner the University of Applied Sciences for Health Professions Upper Austria already participated in the previous project on the initial development of the app. In this current project the applications and workflows in the community will be tested in a “Living-Lab”, i.e. all members of the health care system, and of course the elderly people themselves at home with their families and/or caregivers, will be invited to use the app.

A further study from this project is currently underway at the Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences for Health Professions under the title "Digital Solutions for Elderly Care by Informal Caregivers: A Study on Nursing Benefits (DigiSECC)" to examine the effects of web-based documentation and advice on older people and their to examine caring relatives.