There are a growing number of healthy aging adults, individuals with mental illness, stroke, traumatic brain injury or aging-related conditions such as mild cognitive impairment who lack the functional skills needed to perform everyday tasks in a broad range of areas. These activities often require interactions with different elements of technology, such as banking (using an ATM or online banking), online shopping, wayfinding, navigating the complex health care universe including scheduling appointments, ordering and refilling medications, or using common and essential technologies such as smartphones or the internet. These challenges are currently multiplied by the COVID-19 crisis, which has led many older people to socially distance and now rely on technology such as videoconferencing for doctor’s visits or even ordering food. Many of these technology-based challenges arise from changes in cognition, either normal and expected aging-related changes or impairments acquired from these other illnesses. A great deal of research has been directed towards understanding the implications of these cognitive changes for independent living as well as to the development of interventions to remediate cognitive and functional declines. However, data has shown that current practice targeting the improvement of basic cognitive abilities alone via various types of brain exercises or games does not restore the ability to perform everyday living activities. No one would expect someone who had never played the piano before to able to play one after successful cognitive training. Technology related functional skills also need to be learned and this is something that previous training programs did not target. These realizations are what led to the concept for iFunction in 2016.
8
The idea was developed by Dr. Sara J. Czaja, Director of the Center on Aging and Behavioral Research at Weill Cornell Medicine and Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami, and Dr. Philip D. Harvey, Leonard M. Miller Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Psychology and the Brain Fitness Pavilion, renowned researchers whose focus is on functional skills assessment and training within the areas of aging, MCI, dementia, serious mental illness, and traumatic brain injury. “Ensuring technological proficiency and user confidence among older adults is of paramount importance,” explained Dr. Harvey. “To do so, it is critical that equal access is available. This is a driving principle behind iFunction.” The program bridges the “real world functioning skills” gap between daily life,
functional skills and technology and can help people regain their prior functional skills or assist them with the acquisition of new functional skills such as those needed to manage emerging and existing technologies. This takes place through a proprietary, unique and evidence-based functional skills assessment and training software platform that can be delivered on both PC and Mac, platforms with a tablet web-based version ready by the end of the year. The solution allows for restored independence, improved ability to learn new skills and higher quality of life for people and increased productivity/reach as well as a reduction of costs for clinicians and caregivers. “Our goal is to help ensure that older adults are able to successfully negotiate our increasingly digitized world,” said Dr. Czaja. iFunction Mission To restore or improve the capacity of individuals to do everyday tasks and enhance the quality of life for older adults as well as for people suffering from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Serious Mental Illness (SMI) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
