Dementia Australia, backed by Gandel Philanthropy, has launched an innovative app that aims to improve the quality of care for people living with dementia by building the skills of home support and community care workers.
Ask Annie is a mobile app developed with Deakin University’s Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute (A2I2), that offers short, self-paced learning modules to help home support and community care workers refresh their skills and learn tips and techniques to provide better care to people living with dementia.
‘Annie’ is a virtual tool for community care workers providing dementia care in the home. ‘She’ guides users through a range of scenarios, based on real life experiences, to strengthen their dementia care skills.
Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe AM said with almost half a million Australians living with dementia, the community needs a greater focus on quality dementia care and ensuring continued training and support is available for the workforce.
“The app is an easy to use, convenient training tool, able to be purchased by provider organisations as a multi-license package for their staff to access anywhere and anytime,” Ms McCabe said.
“Once the team member signs up to the app, Annie is there to provide encouragement, tips and to offer ongoing training that is accessible whenever the care worker wants to schedule in a quick 10- or 15-minute check-in across the country.”
There are more than 130,000 people working in home support and community care and they play a vital role for people living with dementia, their families and carers.
This app sounds like it can make life better for everyone.
Discussion2 Comments
I am a full-time carer for my partner who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in September last year .
I wish to launch the Ask Annie App to assist me with caring for my partner .