Supporting Frontline Aged Care Workers to Transform In-Home Services

In the second installment of our Healthy Aging® Month series, Baldwin Pok Man Kwan, MPH; a physiotherapist and project officer at Silverchain, shares insights from his team's recent research published in JMIR Aging.

In his video, Baldwin Kwan highlights how frontline aged care workers view technology as a powerful tool to enable everyday care tasks. He emphasizes that digital solutions can reduce staff travel time, ease administrative burdens, and allow care providers to focus more on direct care. Ultimately, Kwan notes that these technological supports help older adults maintain their function and independence, allowing them to continue living comfortably in their own homes.

Understanding Frontline Perspectives on Digitally Enabled Home Care

Kwan’s video draws directly from a mixed-methods study published in JMIR Aging, titled "The Use of Technology to Deliver In-Home Aged Care Services: Mixed Methods Study of Australian Staff Perspectives". Surveying 226 staff members and conducting in-depth interviews across a major Australian aged care provider, the study explored how direct care workers view the digital enablement of daily care tasks, as well as the practical enablers and barriers to technology adoption.

The researchers found that staff identified 56% of common direct in-home care tasks as having high potential to be digitally enabled. Clinical and coordination staff particularly highlighted digital communication tools for streamlining assessments, care planning, and interprofessional collaboration. While staff recognized key benefits, such as increased service availability, better access to client data, and enhanced client independence, they also stressed that tech implementation must preserve the crucial human touch of care delivery.

Navigating Implementation Barriers in Aged Care

The study provides actionable insights into the workplace infrastructure needed to support successful digital adoption. Frontline workers identified reliable software, mobile-friendly hardware, and responsive technical support as essential prerequisites for using digital tools effectively on the road. The authors emphasized that addressing operational hurdles, such as regional connectivity issues, digital literacy gaps, and client privacy concerns, is vital to preventing staff burnout and avoiding service disruptions. By incorporating direct feedback from frontline care workers, technology developers and home care organizations can design more intuitive, supportive digital systems that ultimately improve care delivery for older adults aging in place.

In the Author's Words

"Technology will support older adults to receive care at home and enable them to continue living where they want."

— Baldwin Pok Man Kwan, MPH (Silverchain Project Officer)

Empowering older adults to live independently at home requires both functional support and meaningful social engagement. Join us in our next spotlight as Professor Hsiu-Ping Yueh shares fascinating insights on how social robots, and the human values of fairness and empathy, help bridge the gap in social isolation.