Using brain monitoring and video surveillance to reduce violent incidents in a care-facility environment

Increasingly prevalent patient violence within the dementia population is a challenge to long term care providers. Violent incidents can lead to serious musculoskeletal and neurological health complications. I propose to use video surveillance and a novel brain monitoring system in a care facility-based elderly population, to monitor violent episodes and brain vitality after incidents. This will help to 1) identify environmental, behavioural and biomechanical characteristics that contribute to injuries, and 2) measure the transient and long term effects on brain function. Retirement Concepts, a care provider for dementia clients, benefits from this research by gaining insight on potential
improvements in the design and function of their care facilities that may reduce violent events. This results in a higher quality of care for patients and an improved work environment for employees. Integrating leading edge research into
their care paradigm will uniquely distinguish Retirement Concepts from other care facilities.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Carolyn Sparrey

Student:

Tim Bhatnagar

Partner:

Retirement Concepts

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Service industry

University:

Simon Fraser University