Brugerorienterende velfærdsteknologier som middel til livskvalitet, når demens er en del af livet for ældre i plejebolig

Abstract

User-oriented welfare technologies in old age care, which are designed to make the elderly more self-reliant and thus achieve greater quality of life, have become part of the political response to demographic challenges arising due to a growing number of old people, increased pressure on public budgets and a lack of personnel in old age care. The article examines how, in practice, user-oriented welfare technologies support the quality of life of elderly people who have dementia and live in residential care facilities. The study’s empirical data were collected through participant observation studies and interviews at two Danish residential care facilities in two municipalities. The analysis iden-tified two themes: 1) freedom to go out with GPS and 2) comfort and social togetherness with therapeutic dolls and PARO seals. The article elucidates how the practical use of user-oriented welfare technologies, when done without reflection, bears the risk of ignoring the old resident’s individual situation. Furthermore, it appears that user-oriented welfare technologies give rise to new nursing and care tasks. These tasks must be taken seriously if the technologies for the old people living with dementia in residential care facilities are to underpin quality of life and broader under-standing, understood both as individual and community-based and as founded on the experiences, values, interests and needs of the old resident.