Harvesting Caregiving Knowledge: Design Considerations for Integrating Volunteer Input in Dementia Care

Improving volunteer performance leads to better caregiving in dementia care settings. However, caregiving knowledge systems have been focused on eliciting and sharing expert, primary caregiver knowledge, rather than volunteer-provided knowledge. Through the use of an experience prototype, we explored the content of volunteer caregiver knowledge and identified ways in which such non-expert knowledge can be useful to dementia care. By using lay language, sharing information specific to the client and collaboratively finding strategies for interaction, volunteers were able to boost the effectiveness of future volunteers. Therapists who reviewed the content affirmed the reliability of volunteer caregiver knowledge and placed value on its recency, variety and its ability to help bridge language and professional barriers. We discuss how future systems designed for eliciting and sharing volunteer caregiver knowledge can be used to promote better dementia care.