“There are only four kinds of people in the world—those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers” is a quote by Rosalynn Carter, Former First Lady of the United States.
Addressing the needs of informal caregivers – who provide non-professional care to someone in their family or otherwise close to them – is a crucial issue for Europe. Across the EU, informal carers provide the majority of all long-term care. This reliance on informal care has profound implications, for the caregivers themselves, for the care recipients, and society as a whole.
The European Care Strategy introduced by the European Commission in 2022 highlights the potential of innovative digital solutions – such as information and communication technology, eHealth, assistive technologies, artificial intelligence, and robotics – to improve access to affordable care services and to promote independent living. For example, in Germany, there are political efforts like the “Digital Healthcare and Care Modernisation Act”, which introduced mobile apps as a benefit of long-term care insurance. However, the reality in European households is far removed from these advancements. A considerable percentage of care recipients’ households is not even connected to the internet or relies on basic technologies, with a simple alarm-button often representing the only "care technology". While robots and sensors are discussed as future solutions to the care crisis, the current gap between this vision and the technologies in use suggests that more practical and accessible solutions are needed.
Many digital tools are developed based on the capabilities of existing technology, rather than an in-depth understanding of the requirements of home care settings. For digital tools to succeed, they must be tailored to and address key everyday issues.
Our research (and that of other scholars) shows that individuals involved in informal care settings face diverse challenges depending on the health condition of the care recipient, living situations, and socio-economic backgrounds. Family carers are not only burdened by providing personal care, but also invest time and effort into coordination, searching for reliable information, and tackling bureaucratic hurdles. Moreover, there is a digital divide, with older individuals or those with lower technical skills often excluded from online ‘solutions’ altogether. In addition, the target group is often unaware of the digital offers available to them.
What recommendations can be drawn from this? To fully realise the potential of digital ‘solutions’, more emphasis is needed on user-centred designs and better outreach to inform and educate the target group about available digital support. Information on high-quality online services such as apps or websites for home care must be made (even) more easily accessible. On the one hand, the heterogeneity of family care arrangements must be considered. On the other hand, tech developers and policymakers must face the fact that most long-term care is provided by women of middle and old-age – not yet a classic target group for tech development.
Although discourses on ageing, care, and digitalisation might typically be shaped by the ideation of robot technologies, it is also promising to scrutinise the full spectrum of caregiving activities and their implications for digitalisation. Caregiving activities such as information gathering and coordination may be rather associated with everyday life technologies such as websites or calendar apps than with robots. Yet these tasks offer as much potential for digital support as practical activities like lifting someone out of bed.
In conclusion, while digital solutions hold great promise for easing the burden of caregiving, they must be aligned with the specific needs and realities of informal caregivers. Targeted support, customised tools, and broader digital literacy efforts are essential for technologies to effectively contribute to the future of care.
Further Reading:
European Commission (Ed.). (2021). 2021 Long-Term Care Report: Trends, challenges and opportunities in an ageing society. Joint Report prepared by the Social Protection Committee (SPC) and the European Commission (DG EMPL).
Hoff, A. & Pottharst, B. (2023). The role of assistive technologies in home care delivery in Germany: between vision and reality. In K. Hamblin & M. Lariviere (Eds.), Sustainable care. Care technologies for ageing societies: An international comparison. Policy Press.
Hudelmayer, A., zur Kammer, K. & Schütz, J. (2023). Eine App für die informelle Pflege: Nutzungserfahrungen und -hindernisse aus Sicht von pflegenden Angehörigen. [An app for informal care: User experiences and obstacles from the perspective of family caregivers], Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 8 (56).
Project “DiVa – Use of a digital care application for informal carers and its effects on everyday care”.
Project “DUA – Digital information and support services. User experiences with and obstacles to digital information and support services for care at home”.