Abstract:

The forecast for the year 2050 is that people over 65 years of age will represent more than 30% of the total population, with the number of octogenarians exceeding 4 million. As a consequence of this ageing of the population, there will be an increasing number of people with a chronic illness or in a situation of dependency. In this social context, the current healthcare model, especially in rural areas; must seek technological solutions applicable to citizens in their own environment, in order to respond to this major socio-health problem.

The personal assistant is a professional who facilitates the independent living project of people with disabilities and supports the independent living of these people, enabling the latter to live according to their preferences in their usual environment, promoting their quality of life. People with disabilities who are, in turn, trained as personal assistants for people with higher degree of dependency, need to reinforce their competences during the process of professional practice. Depending on the type of disability of the person who works as a personal assistant or the person to whom the service is provided, it will be necessary to pay attention to some or other competences, being critical the learning of occupational risk prevention.

The Cuidapp.me project aims to offer a technological solution so that people with disabilities can reinforce their knowledge as personal assistants and provide support at home and in their own environment to other people with disabilities in safe conditions. To this end, the personal assistant in training will find, in their actual working environment, accurate information for the proper performance of their job as a personal assistant in key situations through this mobile application (app). The access to this information is critical in these situations, in which an error in the execution of the task could pose a risk to themselves or to the person with disabilities to whom they provide their services.

This virtual tool enables the assistant in training to receive training assistance right when he/she is involved in the actual task, reinforcing the contents previously explained in the training courses on the classroom. The application developed aims to offer information and advice to personal assistants with disabilities after their training, this application aims to solve "just-in-time" the doubts and/or difficulties that the personal assistant may encounter in the provision of the home service.

The information is presented to these users so that it is clear, concise and easy to understand; most of if it consisting on video or audio instructions that can be followed at the same time they’re attending the assisted person; so that the deviation of attention from the actual task at hand is minimized.

A pilot project for the testing of the mobile app has been developed in close collaboration with the Castilla y León section of the Spanish Confederation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities of Castilla y León (COCEMFE-CyL).

Keywords:

e-learning, Personal Assistants, Mobile Applications, practical learning.