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Live Well

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The Idea:

What will change in the world because this Project happens?

Elders and the rapidly aging within the nation will receive the connection to resources and support that they need in a manner that enables them to Live Well independently within the community and supported by the community.

Live Well is a platform that will enable individuals and those who support them to meet their ongoing needs through a community network and that harnesses the potential of technology to integrate their support within the communities in which they live.

As care delivery is increasing pushed out of acute care facilities, as people are able to live longer with the assistance of chronic care treatments, and as the population ages, there is a need to improve access to social services for social services professionals, family/caregivers, and the individuals who need external support to Live Well in the community.

We aspire to promote people's independence and ability to live in the least restrictive environment possible. When adequate resources don't exist, people require "placement" into places where their needs can be met. A huge gap exists in the availability of place as well for people who do not require such restrictive measures, yet still need assistance to meet their daily needs. At this juncture, our country lacks the infrastructure capacity to "care" for people "in facilities," which necessitates developing means to support people who require assistance to Live Well in the community.

Live Well will provide a technology platform to fill the capacity gap in a democratized way while supporting our deepest aspirations for promoting liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness throughout all stages of life.

This is an area that is ripe to grow. There is a real need for harnessing technology to meet the needs of those already aged, most importantly for those entering into this group. While this is local in the sense of meeting needs peculiar to the way of western development, transience, and independence; we are exporting a trend of geographically mobile and displacement from traditional social structures into the developing world as the transaction cost of 'economic opportunity,' so development of this kind of platform will be universally applicable, it is already a problem in China.

What information will people interact with to make this change?

How it works: Mrs. Jane Hammond, an 87 year old widow, lives alone and assisted by neighbors. A neighbor creates a Live Well profile for "Mrs. J" that enables the neighbor to locate a home health aide to come in on weekdays as well as to help Mrs. J when she can't get to the store. The Live Well profile links to "neighborhoods" on facebook(FB) where a FB neighbor with a pet 2 blocks away learns Mrs. J needs cat food; the FB neighbor goes to the pet store and picks up cat food for Mrs. J. Later, a young professional uses his iPhone to check grocery store needs from Live Well and sees that Mrs. J, up the street, needs a quart of milk; his grandparents use it in Ohio so he helps other folks out locally. Reimbursement would be integrated directly to the stores interfacing with Medi-aid/Medi-care. Community service effort may be credited through a "time bank" system, employer recognition for companies as "in kind" donations, or simply in the spirit of a "good deed."

Live Well uses technology to facilitate meeting social support both through virtual connections and "live" connections. Live Well innovates the way we live in and think about our "communities" by bridging virtual community with our residential community, that bridges the communities of needs with the resources for benefits, and that brings people together to care for our community wellness.

What else have you done in this Cause Area?

I am involved in bioethics, mediation, elder care plan facilitation and elder ethics issues, with a particular focus on the needs and concerns of marginalized populations.

I worked under the leadership of an ex-IDEO health innovation startegist and product designer as the product development team at ePatients.com, a web 1.0 company that sought to create products/services for patients and their families in the acute and post-acute care setting. Following that, the product development team co-founded a venture to support patient adherence to therapies in the chronic care market through user-focused design of a web-based platform; timing and market changes (the Bust)/expectations (SE was nascent) precluded funding. However, 8 yrs later, I am teaching a "chronic care" curriculum that draws upon research (3-4 yrs ago) that demonstrated the needs we identified and sought to meet 8 yrs ago, which is only to say, let's not miss this opportunity!

Cause Area:
- Public & Social Benefit
Cause Area Tags:
Financial support?:
No
City:
San Francisco
State/Region:
CA
Country:
USA

The Assessment

What kind of help or resources do you need to turn your project idea into a completed mashup?

- Funders for initial development through Pilot
- Developers to realize a beta version
- People committed to harnessing technology and resources to meet local community needs as the first step in promoting the global wellness

- San Francisco has one of the largest urban elder population along with the technology resources, skill, and people power to address this critical social problem and to demonstrate a democratized, inclusive tool that meets the needs of our diverse community. Let's do it and create an inclusive platform to support the Living Well of those around us!