Figure 1: generated by ChatGPT.

Informal caregivers play a crucial role in the home care of elderly patients with multimorbidity, providing both physical assistance and emotional support. Their contributions are essential, as many older adults with complex health needs prefer to remain in their homes rather than move to institutional settings. Informal caregivers, often family members, deliver the majority of care for older adults with multimorbidity. This includes managing medications, assisting with daily living activities, adherence to care plans, and coordinating medical appointments. Studies show that nearly 80% of home care for elderly individuals in Europe with chronic conditions is provided by informal caregivers [1]. Beyond medical tasks, caregivers offer emotional and social support, which is vital for the psychological well-being of elderly patients. Many caregivers report that their role helps them feel valued and appreciated despite the challenges. Informal caregivers act as intermediaries, helping older adults access healthcare services and communicate with providers. This role is particularly important for those with multiple conditions, as the complexity of care plans can be overwhelming. The caregiving role often results in significant emotional, physical, and financial strain. Around 40-70% of informal caregivers experience symptoms of depression or anxiety, and many report feeling overburdened due to the lack of external support. The "caregiver burden" is a recognized risk factor for the informal caregiver’s own health deterioration. Informal caregiving is a substantial economic asset. For instance, ca. 52 million informal caregiver in Europe provide unpaid care, 70% - 90% of them are women. The number of patients who need care at home will increase 2050 in Europe by 23% to 38.1 million patients.

Another important concern pointed out by the Green Paper on Ageing [2] is related to the social isolation and the increasing risk of loneliness. It is estimated that around 30 million adults in the EU frequently feel lonely. Factors such as poor health, unfavourable economic circumstances and living alone are associated with higher levels of loneliness. Other causes can be the death of a partner, family, or friends. It is known that people aged 85+ spend an average of 80% of their time at home. The resulting feeling of social isolation can have detrimental effects on an individual’s health, including an increase in morbidity and mortality.

While informal caregiving is invaluable, there is a pressing need for better support systems, including respite care and financial assistance, to alleviate the burden on caregivers and improve the quality of care for older adults. This dual focus ensures sustainability and enhances outcomes for both caregivers and care recipients.

In the health care sector, person-centred treatment approaches have shown the potential to improve treatment outcomes and quality of life of patients and the life of their informal caregivers. This applies where patients are living with complex conditions like multimorbid older patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild dementia. Such treatment approaches quite often include input from modern health technologies like health/home monitoring platforms which also offer services to patients for self-management of their conditions. This approach is also followed in the research project CAREPATH (An Integrated Solution for Sustainable Care for Multimorbid Patients with Dementia) [3]. To achieve acceptance of such complex health technologies, their services must be beneficial in the eyes of target end users which included in the case of CAREPATH, the patient’s informal caregivers. Therefore, understanding the user requirements of patients and their informal caregivers is of utmost importance which was achieved in CAREPATH by interviews. These revealed that patients’ preferences about what services and information shall be provided to them shall be limited to what they deem necessary which is highly personal. Informal caregivers as opposed to patients, are much interested in receiving most possible information about their care-dependent’s health status. Thus, provision of services and information for these user groups need to be highly customizable to their personal preferences and needs. The user requirements analysis reveals that not all informal caregivers live with their relatives and not everyone has (access to) a tablet. The access of informal caregivers should be consistent for all informal caregiver, either everybody uses a tablet or nobody. So, we decided in CAREPATH to develop ICAP (Informal Caregiver Aid Platform) as a web-based platform to support informal caregivers in fulfilling their care tasks and lessen the burden of the informal caregiver.