DemiCare+ project: Uniting disciplines in application development to increase resilience of informal carers
N. E. Stolwijk (Convener).
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AbstractPARTICIPANTS: K. M. Piskorska (Austria), W. Kratky (Austria), M. Ciumageanu (Romania), A. Salceanu (Romania), Raluca Sfetcu (Romania), N. E. Stolwijk (The Netherlands), S. Ipakchian Askari (The Netherlands). ISSUE: Informal caregivers of people living with dementia (ICGD, PwD) represent a high-risk group [1,2]. Currently, there is a scarcity of evidence-based prevention programs available to this group within health- and care systems [3]. Research shows that depression among ICGD compromises caregivers' physical health, reduces their ability to cope with daily life, and often leads to an inability to maintain their caregiving role, resulting in a need for professional support. The European DemiCare+ project aims to implement an integrated solution for preventing depression in ICGD. This project is a collaboration between partners in Austria, Romania, and the Netherlands. It builds on the personalized information and training offered by the existing DemiCare application [4] — a fully automated self-help preventive intervention that already provides guidance on managing behavioral problems in PwD and improving caregiving competencies (Figure 1). By analyzing each country's healthcare landscape and identifying the challenges of ICGD we aim to develop a unified application that can be personalized to meet this range of diverse needs. CONTENT: In the first year of the project, we conducted co-design sessions and interviews with ICGD to gain insight into their needs and preferences regarding such an application, and to understand the challenges they face in caring for PwD. We also mapped the regional services available in each participating country. Additionally, a review was carried out to identify existing micro-interventions that can be integrated into the DemiCare application. During this symposium, we will share initial insights gathered from these studies. CONCLUSION: The session will explore the theme of increasing resilience of ICGD from multiple perspectives in Austria, Romania and The Netherlands: user needs and barriers, coping strategies, micro-interventions and available regional services for ICGD. We will reflect on how these aspects are being united in this project. Following this, there will be an interactive session where participants will receive inspiring examples of how to identify both latent and conscious user needs through creative and engaging formats, using DemiCare+ as a case study. Participants will rethink their current approaches to data collection and application of results. In addition, we will provide examples of how ethical and social considerations for applications similar to DemiCare+ can be addressed during these sessions.Keywords: micro interventions, participatory research, informal caregivers, dementia, resilience
N. E. Stolwijk (Convener). (2026). DemiCare+ project: Uniting disciplines in application development to increase resilience of informal carers. Gerontechnology, 25(2), 1-10
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2026.25.2.1472.3