An assistive healthcare platform for both social and service networking for engaging elderly people

Abstract

Most countries around the globe are facing the same issue — an aging population. As an individual move from their working life to a retirement life, multiple socio-economic issues can occur as their social life has also significantly changed. This shift often affects an individual's mental health and well-being. As a result, the aging population requires a solution that does reduce not only its impact on the government but also harvests its contribution to the society. Existing solutions are based on utilizing online platforms such as social network or service network as a medium to reduce social isolation and improve the mental health of elderly people. However, these solutions fail on two accounts: 1) they fail to see older people as active contributors and 2) older people do not see the needs or benefits of using them. This paper proposes a solution that addresses those two issues by engaging people actively and collaboratively as contributors of services and/or receivers of social benefits through an assistive platform that integrates a service network with a social network. This model combines the advantages of both platforms, offers many opportunities for seniors to not only utilize their skills and knowledge to exchange benefits with other users but also expand their social life. The proposed model can be used as a mean to engage older adults to the community, making them become more active, improve their mental well-being and subsequently reduce the cost of health services to the society.