The YourCare+ self-referral platform for home and community support services – a proof of concept pilot toward large scale deployment

For older adults, reduced mobility introduces challenges beyond physical activity. It can result in social isolation and limited access to public spaces, events and community resources, resulting in negative implications on health and well-being.

This project will explore the potential of Mobile Telepresence Robots (MTRs) to act as a mobility extensions for older adults, helping them to improve both social and physical mobility. A mixed-methods approach will allow the qualitative exploration of MTRs as well as quantitative validation of emerging findings. A series of in-person, co-creative group sessions using MTRs as technology probes will be conducted to better understand the mobility limitations of older adults, potential use cases for MTRs, and concerns about MTR use. A follow up survey will allow the testing of hypotheses emerging from these situations.

This exploratory pilot will enable future studies that investigate the feasibility and desirability of MTRs for a variety of identified use cases and observe the social and interpersonal implications of MTR use, creating the potential to validate an established and relatively inexpensive technology as a critical extension of mobility for older adults.