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Designing technologies for mindful inclusion- How sharing caregiving data affects family communication -Abstract
Previous research has shown that tracking technologies have the potential to help family caregivers optimize theircoping strategies and improve their relationships with care recipients. In this research, we explore how sharing
the tracked data (i.e., caregiving journals and patient’s conditions) with other family caregivers affects home careand family communication. Although previous works suggested that family caregivers may benefit from reading
the records of others, sharing patients’ private information might fuel negative feelings of surveillance andviolation of trust for care recipients. To address this research question, we added a sharing feature to thepreviously developed tracking tool and deployed it for six weeks in the homes of 15 family caregivers who werecaring for a depressed family member. Our findings show how the sharing feature attracted the attention of carerecipients and helped the family caregivers discuss sensitive issues with care recipients.

Development

GoalPhase 1
Development of a tracking tool.
Family caregivers record:・Mood & activities of the patients・Caregiving activities

Informal CareStressor
Patient

Vicious Cycle

FamilyCaregiverReaction

Phase 2・Add a sharing feature tothe tracking tool・Can read others’ records.

Our goal is to design a tool thathelps family caregivers improvetheir care and communication
with their care recipients at home.

StudyTo investigate how information sharing aboutcare recipients by family caregivers impacts
family communication
Hypotheses:
1. Learn from other records
2. Gain emotional support
3. Conflict between caregiver-care recipient

Results

Participants (family caregivers):
・14 adults that care for a depressed family member
・11 women, 3 male, average age 43
・6 housewives, 6 full-time employees, 2 self-employed
Patient condition:
・Onset of illness: On average, 8yrs ago, 8 experienced a relapse
・All take antidepressants, all given regular consultation

Posts in phase 2 included morebackground and contextual information

Hypotheses 1 & 2: Supported.
Participants reported improvement of
their coping strategies by learning fromothers. Hypotheses 3: Not supported.

Increased caregiver-care recipient communication- Others’ records triggered communication about depression- Care recipients suggested what to write on caregiving journal- Caregivers indirectly expressed feelings to care recipients
 Importance of supporting indirect communication

References[1] N. Yamashita, H. Kuzuoka, T. Kudo, K. Hirata, E. Aramaki, K. Hattori, “How Information Sharing about Care Recipients by Family Caregivers
Impacts Family Communication,” in Proc. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2018.
[2] N. Yamashita, H. Kuzuoka, K. Hirata, T. Kudo, E. Aramaki, K. Hattori, “Changing Moods: How Manual Tracking by Family Caregivers
Improve Caring and Family Communication,” in Proc. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2017.

Contact
Naomi Yamashita Email: cs-liaison-ml at hco.ntt.co.jp
Interaction Research Group, Innovative Communication Laboratory
Open House 2019
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