BackgroundWith the expected increase in the numbers of persons with dementia, providing timely, adequate, and affordable care and support is challenging. Assistive and health technologies may be a valuable contribution in dementia care, but new challenges may emerge.ObjectiveThe aim of our study was to review the state of the art of technologies for persons with dementia regarding issues on development, usability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, deployment, and ethics in 3 fields of application of technologies: (1) support with managing everyday life, (2) support with participating in pleasurable and meaningful activities, and (3) support with dementia health and social care provision. The study also aimed to identify gaps in the evidence and challenges for future research.MethodsReviews of literature and expert opinions were used in our study. Literature searches were conducted on usability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, and ethics using PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases with no time limit. Selection criteria in our selected technology fields were reviews in English for community-dwelling persons with dementia. Regarding deployment issues, searches were done in Health Technology Assessment databases.ResultsAccording to our results, persons with dementia want to be included in the development of technologies; there is little research on the usability of assistive technologies; various benefits are reported but are mainly based on low-quality studies; barriers to deployment of technologies in dementia care were identified, and ethical issues were raised by researchers but often not studied. Many challenges remain such as including the target group more often in development, performing more high-quality studies on usability and effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, creating and having access to high-quality datasets on existing technologies to enable adequate deployment of technologies in dementia care, and ensuring that ethical issues are considered an important topic for researchers to include in their evaluation of assistive technologies.ConclusionsBased on these findings, various actions are recommended for development, usability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, deployment, and ethics of assistive and health technologies across Europe. These include avoiding replication of technology development that is unhelpful or ineffective and focusing on how technologies succeed in addressing individual needs of persons with dementia. Furthermore, it is suggested to include these recommendations in national and international calls for funding and assistive technology research programs. Finally, practitioners, policy makers, care insurers, and care providers should work together with technology enterprises and researchers to prepare strategies for the implementation of assistive technologies in different care settings. This may help future generations of persons with dementia to utilize available and affordable technologies and, ultimately, to benefit from them.

Computer-based cognitive interventions have moderate effects in cognition and [corrected] anxiety and small effects in depression in PWD. No significant effects were found on activities of daily living. They led to superior results compared to non-computer-based interventions in cognition. Further research is needed on cognitive recreation and cognitive stimulation. There is also a need for longer term [corrected] follow-up to examine the potential retention of treatment effects, and for the design of specific outcome measures.

Due to the growing number of older adults with cognitive impairment, it is essential to delay the onset and progression of cognitive decline and promote a healthy lifestyle. The rapid growth of technology has considerably advanced the field of computerized cognitive interventions. Consequently, traditional cognitive interventions are being adapted and new multimedia systems are being developed to encourage health and independent living in old age. The primary objective of this review was to identify cognitive stimulation, training and rehabilitation programs aimed at older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, PubMed, and CORDIS databases were searched from January 2008 to August 2018. Two researchers reviewed the potential studies individually for eligibility. Studies of computerized cognitive interventions for people with dementia and cognitive impairment were included if they clearly described objectives, users and functioning. A systematic review of the studies was carried out, providing a qualitative synthesis of the features and study characteristics of each software. Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria, and 11 different cognitive stimulation, training, and rehabilitation programs were identified. The studies found on cognitive intervention software indicate the existence of various technological programs for people with MCI and dementia. On the overall, the programs were aimed at people with different clinical conditions, able to create specific treatments and personalized training, optimized for portable devices, and user-friendly. However, the selected programs differ from each other in terms of objectives, usage mode and characteristics, even if they were used for the same purposes. Therefore, the information obtained in the review may be relevant to distinguish between programs and select the one that best suits each user. Thus, more information about the features and context of use is needed as well as more clinical studies to be able to compare among computerized cognitive programs.

The lives of persons living with mental illness are affected by psychological, biological, social, economic, and environmental factors over the life course. It is therefore unlikely that simple preventive strategies, clinical treatments, therapeutic interventions, or policy options will succeed as singular solutions for the challenges of mental illness. Persons living with mental illness receive services and supports in multiple settings across the health care continuum that are often fragmented, uncoordinated, and inadequately responsive. Appropriate assessment is an important tool that health systems must deploy to respond to the strengths, preferences, and needs of persons with mental illness. However, standard approaches are often focused on measurement of psychiatric symptoms without taking a broader perspective to address issues like growth, development, and aging; physical health and disability; social relationships; economic resources; housing; substance use; involvement with criminal justice; stigma; and recovery. Using conglomerations of instruments to cover more domains is impractical, inconsistent, and incomplete while posing considerable assessment burden. interRAI mental health instruments were developed by a network of over 100 researchers, clinicians, and policy experts from over 35 nations. This includes assessment systems for adults in inpatient psychiatry, community mental health, emergency departments, mobile crisis teams, and long-term care settings, as well as a screening system for police officers. A similar set of instruments is available for child/youth mental health. The instruments form an integrated mental health information system because they share a common assessment language, conceptual basis, clinical emphasis, data collection

Suicide is the second cause of death in young people. The use of technologies as tools facilitates the detection of individuals at risk of suicide thus allowing early intervention and efficacy. Suicide can be prevented in many cases. Technology can help people at risk of suicide and their families. It could prevent situations of risk of suicide with the technological evolution that is increasing. This work is a systematic review of research papers published in the last ten years on technology for suicide prevention. In September 2017, the consultation was carried out in the scientific databases PubMed, ScienceDirect, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Library and Google Scholar. A general search was conducted with the terms "prevention" AND "suicide" AND "technology. More specific searches included technologies such as "Web", "mobile", "social networks", and others terms related to technologies. The number of articles found following the methodology proposed was 90, but only 30 are focused on the objective of this work. Most of them were Web technologies (51.61%), mobile solutions (22.58%), social networks (12.90%), machine learning (3.23%) and other technologies (9.68%). According to the results obtained, although there are technological solutions that help the prevention of suicide, much remains to be done in this field. Collaboration among technologists, psychiatrists, patients, and family members is key to advancing the development of new technology-based solutions that can help save lives.