Although now retired Sandra Shafii is still working as an Occupational Therapist and was a team leader. She also has two horses and drives lorries!
She has been working with Technology and Dementia since 2015. She is often asked how people will cope with dementia in the future – how will we cope if technology takes over?
Some statistics – some 93,000 people in Scotland have some form of dementia including 3,200 under 65. However there are likely to be more, as yet undetected.
Telecare can help with social media playing its part. This can result in more people remaining in their own homes maintaining contact with family and being independent. Many older people cannot as yet cope with new technology and they have to find out how to use it. Once they do, it becomes Procedural memory like learning to ride a bike. Things like Hive and other voice related devices will help. She mentioned a website www.dementiacircle.org which would answer questions on much of this. However it was important to make sure that the human element was not forgotten. A robot dog might be useful but not as much as a real one.
Sandra took questions and the Vote of thanks was given by Ron MacLachlan.