The Jaume I University and the Mémora Foundation have signed a collaboration agreement to jointly promote projects to prevent unwanted loneliness that are developed by the Cuatroochenta Chair of Artificial Intelligence, Health and Well-being. The two entities have agreed to cooperate in the study and implementation of initiatives to improve the end-of-life process, especially in people in a situation of unwanted loneliness. Likewise, they will collaborate to find ways to improve care for people in the end-of-life process and promote actions to prevent unwanted loneliness and avoid death in solitude as much as possible.
Currently, one of the main lines of work of the Cuatroochenta Chair of Artificial Intelligence, Health and Well-being is the Gerontec-Serena project, a conversation boat designed to communicate with people and evaluate their feelings of unwanted loneliness. Its objective is to help the early detection of unwanted loneliness and improve the quality of life of the elderly and their caregivers, through machine learning and citizen participation.
In the words of the Rector of the Jaume I University, Eva Alcón, this collaboration agreement “is part of our institutional commitment to put technologies at the service of people and that improve the quality of life, especially of those who are in situations vulnerability ». In this sense, Alcón has highlighted that precisely the Cuatroochenta Chair of Artificial Intelligence, Health and Well-being of the Jaume I University “exemplifies this commitment to an artificial intelligence that, as a basic principle, pursues the well-being of society as a whole.”
Óscar Belmonte Fernández and Antonio Caballer Miedes, co-directors of the Cuatroochenta Chair, have stated that “making available to people technologies that improve their quality of life is the main objective of the Cuatroochenta Chair. Collaborating with the Mémora Foundation will allow us to create technological solutions for those who need it most, working with them in all phases of solution development, from ideation to implementation. With this we hope to bring our research work closer to the whole of society »
A conversational robot designed to detect loneliness
The Gerontec-Serena project is the first that the Cities that Care Observatory, promoted by Fundación Mémora and in collaboration with Fundación la Caixa, has included in its notebook «Projects for intervention in solitude», a series of compilations of aid projects and interventions to the elderly to alleviate the consequences of living alone, promoted by different institutions and entities.
Established on September 1, 2019, the Gerontec-Serena project is a citizen science initiative funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). It consists of a chatbot designed to talk to people and assess their feelings of loneliness. Its objective is to develop a tool that makes it easier for health professionals to detect people at risk of suffering unwanted loneliness, as a first step to carry out interventions that improve this condition.
To talk to Serena, all you need is a mobile phone with Internet access. The assistant works through the voice and, in conversing with Serena, a loneliness questionnaire and three open questions are answered anonymously in which the person responds freely and can express in a very personal way their feeling of unwanted loneliness, what they allows the system to assess your situation. Serena is in the training phase and, in the future, she will learn to love solitude without having to pass the questionnaire, only based on free conversation.
Upward trend of aging and loneliness
At a time of an upward trend in aging, Spain has one of the highest percentages of elderly people in the world, together with an increase in loneliness. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 2020 in Spain there were 2,131,400 people aged 65 or over living alone, which represented 43.6% of single-person households. Compared to 2019, the number of people aged 65 and over living alone increased by 6.1% in 2020, in contrast to single-person households of under 65s, which decreased by 0.9%.
In this context, the Gerontec-Serena project is an opportunity to improve the detection and monitoring of people who may be suffering from unwanted loneliness. In situations of social isolation, such as that experienced by many older people, any tool that can facilitate contact with other people can help alleviate the negative effects of unwanted loneliness, aggravated throughout the pandemic due to confinement situations domiciliary and social distancing.
About the Cities that Care Observatory of the Mémora Foundation
The Cities that Care Observatory is a project promoted by Fundación Mémora in 2019, with the collaboration of Fundación la Caixa, with the aim of generating knowledge and dissemination about aging, loneliness, the end of life and death in solitude.
For more information: www.ciudadesquecuidan.com
About Mémora Foundation
The Mémora Foundation aims to provide aid to society, supporting and improving care for individuals and families in a situation of the end-of-life process. The four main lines of action are awareness, research and innovation, training and social action.
Mémora is the leading group in Spain and Portugal for funeral services, funeral homes, crematoriums and cemetery management. It performs more than 50,000 funeral services and 23,000 cremations and more than 45,000 families occupied its candle rooms in Spain and Portugal. Throughout Spain, the group manages, through 1,400 professionals, 139 funeral homes, 33 crematoriums and 22 cemeteries, and offers service at the local level with national solutions and an international vision.
About the Jaume I University
The Cuatroochenta Chair of Artificial Intelligence, Health and Well-being of the Jaume I University, created in June 2021, was born from the common interest of the Cuatroochenta Solutions company and the Jaume I University to improve the health, well-being and quality of life of people through the application of information and communication technologies (ICT).
In particular, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques is considered a fundamental piece to provide new solutions with which to promote people’s health through new products and services.
The Jaume University is the public university of Castellón, a university that stands out for the quality of its studies and for its commitment to the future of its students. The UJI, which has celebrated the 30th anniversary of its creation, has positioned itself as a local university, characterized by personalized service, a population of comfortable dimensions -with some 15,000 students- and an integrated campus, installing modern, functional facilities and sustainable.
About la Caixa Foundation
Give opportunities to the people who need it most, with the aim of contributing to the construction of a more just and equitable society. This is the reason for the existence of the la Caixa Foundation, created in 1904. It currently has a budget of more than 500 million euros per year, which makes it the first private foundation in Spain and one of the most relevant on an international scale. . The priority of the la Caixa Foundation is the development of social programs that respond to the great challenges of our time, such as the fight against child poverty, the promotion of employment, care for people with advanced diseases and the promotion of aging active and healthy. Medical research, excellence training, culture and education, fundamental to promoting progress and equal opportunities, are other strategic lines of action of the Foundation.
Original New: https://www.uji.es/com/noticies/2021/10/1q/conveni-fundacion-memora/
