AGING AND HEALTH: Catalysts for Change
GROUP OUTCOMES GROUP OUTCOMES
Aging In Place and Health Environments: Drexel Design Research for Health Lab and Second Story Collective Group 1 Separation of campus and community life • Student community orientation co-created with community leaders (paid) • Community access to institutional resources • Community center
Willingness to address institutional history and bias • prioritizing hiring locally • scholarships for local community • Student program of providing direct services for community
Two-way, powerlevel creation and implementation • Tech class and access to resources • Free online courses for older adults Group 2
Create empathy between outsider and insider communities • Use multi-lingual books • Community sharing event Consider intention: what are you working towards? • Experiential research • Develop emotional comfort • Appreciating unity
Representation of people who are helping and helped • Potluck, social club • Website for people to have questions answered • Sponspored festivals
Communication • Pen-pal • Counseling session • Translation services • Partner with local organizations
GROUP OUTCOMES GROUP OUTCOMES
Aging and Population Health Group 1 Considerations within community, build environments, history and education: • Displacement due to health complications • Difficulty leaving community and family • Social activation slows aging • Increasingly expensive to age in place • Complications around Philadelphia’s historic preservation laws and housing modifications Interventions: • Skillshare services • Little sibling program across ages • Supporting elders with technology
Group 2 Well-being • Collaboration between traditional and alternative medicine • Navigating healthcare with other people for support • Technology for emotional support • Preventative care: older adult center or work out spaces Transportation • Older adult-specific transportation • Tech for service coordination Technology • Accessibility: support with older computer systems • Digtal spaces for visual impairments • Wearable smart devices
Community and social • Emotional health and feeling connected • “Day care”
PROCESS PROCESS PROCESS PROCESS
Hospital Re-Admissions and Aging Group 1 Equipment and tech • At-home care tech doesn’t yet exist • Medical equipment is expensive Social challenges • Social support is lacking • Medication adherence • Integrating new regimes
Administration • • Recall of information • Discomfort or isolation out of home • Competency training • • Error reporting • Langauge/communication •
Frontline workers have good ideas but no outlet for them Older adults are excluded from care involvement Costs Group 2
Technology/Transfer of records • On-demand virtual physician • Kiosk/virtual assistant • Health monitoring system: meidcal devices supplied • Translator Provider-patient trust • Personal follow-up • Rating system • Optional hard-copy materials with large print Physical layout of hospital • Personal tour guide with signs • Visitor navigation app • Community car pool • Scent regulation, white noise machines
At the 2023 Drexel Design Research Symposium: Aging and Health: Catalysts for Change, I listened, learned and problem-solved with my fellow students and community members. Patient-caregiving communication • Online messaging portal • Online facilitator • Video calls for family
At the 2023 Drexel Design Research Symposium, “Aging and Health: Catalysts for Change,” my fellow students, community members and I learned to problem-solve using the Design Research method. In the panel discussion, leaders in healthcare and housing fields introduced new frameworks for aging as future-oriented expertise. Applying these frameworks to healthcare and housing models could fundamentally shift conditions for aging community members, attitudes towards preventative and population health and improvements in end-of-life care.
During the Design Sprint, attendees divided ourselves into three groups: Aging in Place and Health Environments; Aging and Population Health; and Hospital Readmissions and Aging. I joined the first, inspired by the work of Drexel Design Research for Health Lab and Second Story Collective.
Second Story Collective brings together students and Philadelphia locals, prototyping community-driven, equitable development for historically marginalized Black communities. Accordingly, my group sought to tackle the rift in Philadelphia between younger university students and Philadelphia locals. We observed that many undergraduate university students only interact with University City or some North Philadelphia neighborhoods, systems and communities. This behavior compounds decades of distrust by Philadelphia locals as a result of universities’ rapid and intentional gentrification and displacement of Philadelphia locals from their own neighborhoods.
We considered solutions which address institutional history and bias, such as prioritizing hiring locally, expanding scholarship programs for Philadelphia lcoals, and implementing a student direct service program in partnership with community leaders, where students could assist local elders with daily tasks; solutions which share university resources, such as technology and lab equipment courses and public access; and two-way, power-level implementation strategies, such as paying community leaders to develop orientation materials.
The event marked my personal introduction to the Design Research method in practice. I was impressed by the thoroughness of information, clear communication and emphasis on idea sharing and uplifting other group members. As we approach such complex problems, it’s useful to learn precedent, protocol and ways leaders in their fields have gotten work done.
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