SmartLife Technology Starts TACT3 Project

The TACT3 Project began on the 1st of November and our first meeting took place at Brunel on the 20^th . Research work has begun in all the work packages except workpackage three which will be starting in April next year.

Our new project administrator start work on Monday the 8^th of December and we hope to have our project website up and running soon, but before that, below you can find a short description of the project.

Incontinence is probably the last social taboo. Even in relatively open societies like the UK continence difficulties are rarely discussed. As people grow older bladder and bowel problems become more common. Bladders stretch less as we age, medications increase the frequency of urination, and mobility problems make it hard for older people to maintain continence because of difficulties in reaching a toilet in time and transferring onto it. Continence problems cause embarrassment and distress to the sufferer and are a burden - emotionally, physically and financially - on family carers.

This collaborative research project consists of three applied research work packages and an overarching knowledge transfer and project management work package. The research aims to:

(1) Improve toilet provision for older people - by investigating the problems older people have locating and using toilets when they are away from home and exploring why older people do not like or use the new automatic conveniences. We shall also explore the demands of toilet provision from the perspective and experiences of public toilet providers. The findings will facilitate the redesign and provision of public toilets to facilitate an age-friendly society.

(2) Improve understanding of continence treatment services - by exploring patient, family and professional viewpoints when people seek help for continence difficulties from the health services. We shall look at the advantages of specialist continence care and try to find out why people do not seek treatment. We shall investigate whether specialist care is significantly better than standard continence care. Our results will be used to ensure more older people obtain greater benefit from continence services.

(3) Provide assistive devices to help people with continence disability - by developing two products that have been requested by continence pad users to help older people to feel more confident and manage their condition better. One product is a urine odour detector that will warn a continence pad user that the pad needs changing before any odour is detected by the human nose. This simple colour change device will be in the form of a small card or a piece of jewellery. The other product is smart underwear that will detect a pad leak immediately and warn the wearer or carer before the leak spreads to outer clothes or furniture.

Together the findings from the three research work packages will empower older adults to resist frailty, and defer the transition from the third age to the fourth age. The transition from continent to incontinent is a transition from being one of the 'fit old' to one of the 'frail old'. Incontinence damages older people physically in terms of its unpleasant effects. Incontinence also damages psychosocially because of what it signifies to the older person - loss of control, social stigma and encroaching dependency, all of which threaten self-esteem and self-identity. This project will add to, and is underpinned by, the growing body of theoretical work on 'possible selves' and identity maintenance in old age.

At the core of this project is a knowledge transfer and management work package that will ensure the involvement of older people at all stages, from the start of the project to dissemination of the findings and assistive device marketing. The views of other stakeholders affected by, and concerned with, continence issues - families, charities, local government, health services, public service providers - are to be integrated via project partnership. Stakeholder involvement will (a) raise public awareness of continence issues, (b) ensure that the project produces useful findings which are disseminated widely, and (c) help ensure that the urine odour detector and the leakage detecting underwear developed through this research get to market.