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Doctors newspaper online, 20.07.2019
Game consoles keep seniors fit
Game consoles for elderly people are tested in around 100 nursing homes. In the virtual room, the residents should train their cognitive and motor skills – and just have fun playing.
By Katrin Berkenkopf
The virtual motorcycling makes the residents in the nursing home in Kaiserswerth joy.
© Katrin Berkenkopf
DÜSSELDORF. Mr. Spiller is going to Bonn by bike today. He does not always hold the track for sure, thank God there is currently no oncoming traffic. He almost missed the turnoff to Bonn, at the last moment he tore the handlebars around. Done.
Applause surprises. Herbert Spiller smiles. It was only his second drive with the virtual machine. Recently, the gaming console of the special kind has moved into the parent company Kaiserswerth, a nursing home of the Diakonie. The 100-year-old likes the so-called memory box. "Wonderful, there was really power behind. If you can not go out on the street, it's fun and enjoyable. "
The Memorebox is a console designed to bring seniors to play, promoting motor and cognitive abilities. The Barmer Ersatzkasse brings her as part of a project in 100 nursing homes throughout Germany.
The Humboldt University, the Charité and the Alice Salomon Hochschule, all from Berlin, will then evaluate the effects of regular playing on the 1000 participants.
"It just brings joie de vivre"
"We arouse and encourage the natural play instinct," explained Heiner Beckmann, Country Manager of Barmer. The memory, the stability and walking safety, the endurance, all this should be promoted by the movement in the virtual space.
The results of a pilot phase in two houses in Berlin and Hamburg suggest this. "But it simply brings joie de vivre and relieves the nursing staff," says Beckmann.
A success would be, for example, if a resident can wear his own jacket again thanks to regular play, said Klaus Patzelt, head of department at the Kaiserswerth headquarters. The project shows the possibilities offered by digitization in nursing. "We have the hope that forgotten or lost abilities will come back."
Unlike the younger popular consoles, the Memorebox comes without a controller. It is controlled by movements of the arms. You steer the motorcycle, roll the ball in the direction of the cone or are panned to the beat of the dance music.
"The games adapt to the player, they realize how good somebody is," says Stev Klapschuweit, sales director at RetroBrain, which has developed the console over the course of four years. So frustration, but also under-demand is avoided. The graphics are reduced, the appearance should remind of the youth of the older users.
Consoles for Hospice or Rehabilitation
From originally three games have now become six. Singing, dancing and table tennis as new offers should appeal not least to women, explains Klapschuweit. The console is already in a late phase of development.
It is possible that in the end different models are available for different purposes – such as nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities or Parkinson's clinics. Ideally, such a box could eventually be bought by private users and connected to the home TV, he says. But you need a few years time and large cooperation partners.
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