Developing Resources to Support Aging Folks and Caregivers
Partner organization: Amazing Care Network
Team members: Maline Demers (Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Biology & Biotechnology ’25), Thomas McDonagh (Robotics Engineering ’25), Collin Mello (Mechanical Engineering ’25), (Mo Nguyen Mechanical Engineering ’25)
Download the team’s final presentation.
Aging in the United States is difficult, and this is particularly true in Hawai‘i. Specific areas of difficulty include challenges regarding healthcare, finance, and social participation. The Amazing Care Network (ACN) helps older people in Hawai‘i successfully age. It also teaches others about how to care for elderly family members and friends. We were tasked with helping the ACN reach its goal by finding topics of interest for its members and identifying the methods best suited to educate them about these topics.
Before we could help the ACN, we researched the intricacies of healthcare, finances, and social participation for older people; simultaneously, we investigated the inner workings of Blue Zones. Only a handful of worldwide locations have tackled aging successfully. These locations are called Blue Zones. Blue Zones have a specific way of life that consistently leads people to live past 100 years old. While on site in O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, we conducted interviews with both members and non-members of the ACN; all interviewees were located in Hawai‘i. We held three
inductive focus groups, 22 individual interviews, and one deductive focus group. The purpose of the initial inductive focus groups was to identify core themes and issues associated with aging in Hawai‘i. For the individual interviews, we observed new themes and topics but also clarified and built upon the earlier themes established by the initial focus groups. Lastly, the final deductive focus groups encouraged discussion about opposing themes or further solidified the existing themes we gathered.
We also conducted a survey. Our survey was given to every interview and focus group participant and was used to better understand the ACN’s population; 19 surveys were completed and returned. This survey allowed us to identify the ACN’s main demographic while we analyzed interview results. The Amazing Care Network’s population that we interviewed were Asian (63.2%), female (78.9%), and between the ages of 60-80 (92%).
Our interviews were conducted over approximately one month and were universally used for our recommendations. From our surveys and interviews, we were able to identify around 20 major themes of various sizes. These themes included topics such as correlations in demographics, recommendations for the program, and commonalities between interviewees.
With newspapers and TV accounting for 76% of local island news consumption, it might help to focus on advertising in the local paper or on TV. Additionally, increasing social media presence would help to attract a younger audience (50-60 years old) as they begin to age.
On another note, more interactive workshops will greatly increase participation from members, as many feel that the current afternoon teas follow too much of the same formula. Additionally, by allowing people to interact with each other and the community, there is a much greater opportunity for expansion.
Continuing, we recommend an updated database to allow for ease of access to the ACN’s resources. We understand that their website provides this information, however, it does not provide clear guidance on where to find these benefits causing many members to forget they exist. Adding onto this, some hyperlinks on the website no longer work as the resources have become outdated.
When it comes to reaching those aged 50-60 years old, we highly recommend a hybrid model for the afternoon teas. To clarify, a hybrid model is a structure allowing attendees to participate in person or remotely. Various factors, such as not being retired and being homebound result in scheduling and transportation issues effectively decreasing the audience at these events. While there was pushback about hosting events exclusively remotely, with a hybrid model the ACN will be able increase engagement by giving people a choice to be at an event either way.
Finally, with the intention of approaching the next generation, we strongly recommend more accessible events. When conducting our interviews, we found that half of the people still working are unable to attend due to scheduling issues. Additionally, a few people mentioned that
they enjoyed the focus groups’ small, structured conversations and would not mind the idea of a guided “happy hour” discussion. By having accessible events, it would be possible to appeal to a younger audience and allow the ACN to grow even more.
From the data we gathered through our many interviews, we were able to cater to the ACN’s initial requests. We put together a deliverable containing many new topics for speakers at the afternoon teas, explained how the members want to learn about these topics, and went further recommending workshops that the ACN can hold. We believe that if the ACN implements these ideas, it will be able to achieve its full potential in being a truly amazing network for its members.