Meet ADAM (About Digital & Me)

By Geraldine Begg, SFHA Technology Enabled Care in Housing (TECH) Programme Co-ordinator

For over a year ADAM has been assisting people living with dementia, their families, and carers, to source consumer technology solutions to help with wellbeing and day-to-day living.  Now Alzheimer Scotland is set to develop ADAM further so it will support a wider range of people with a variety of long-term health condition. 

ADAM is a platform which assists people living with dementia and their families and carers, to source consumer technology solutions to help with wellbeing and day-to-day living.  We want people to live well for longer and to keep doing things which are important to them.  As ADAM only recommends consumer technology, it does not recommend medical devices, users will be able to purchase recommendations online, or off the shelf on their local high street.  It is also worth noting that ADAM has been co-designed, involving people living with dementia and their families, from day one.

ADAM has been created as a trusted friend.  It uses a conversational questionnaire to create recommendations.  The more of the questionnaire that is completed, then the more personalised and tailored recommendations you will receive.  However, there is also the option to browse the product catalogue without completing the questions.  Products are arranged in different categories according to the area of need.

All of the products listed on ADAM have been tested by people living with experience of dementia, and results are provided without bias.  We do not have any affiliate arrangements with any of the manufacturers, our reviews are shared to help you make good decisions about what you might find useful.

ADAM provides a description of each product, if there are additional uses for the product, good to know information, an ease of use and set-up time estimate, and an idea of costs and where to purchase.

We are now looking to see how we can develop the platform further and increase its accessibility and develop ADAM to support various health conditions, although in its present form it is dementia orientated, we recognise that it could be beneficial to people living with a range of long-term health conditions.

Alzheimer Scotland now have Katie, ADAM Partnerships Facilitator, and Rachel, ADAM Products & Testing Facilitators in post.

Katie is available to meet with your teams and provide a walkthrough of the ADAM platform and provide an update on this stage of the ADAM build, which includes looking at a number of long-term health conditions, and how we can utilise ADAM to assist a wider audience, beyond those living with dementia.

Rachel will be facilitating testing circles, looking at new products that come to market and pieces of technology that families are currently using to assist them to live well in their own homes.  Providing unbiased feedback to support individuals to decide which consumer technology could work best for their situation.

The ADAM team are keen to raise awareness and take feedback on your experience of the platform.  They are also keen to involve members of the community that you are working with to participate in the testing of products. Please contact Katie directly for arrange a meeting and become more involved in the project: ktaylor@alzscot.org

Adam is a free service, and you can try it here www.meetadam.co.uk.