New app helps Singapore’s caregivers feel less alone

The Caregivers’ Circle, a community network app for caregivers, is a feasible intervention that can help them meet their social needs and improve quality of life, according to a Singapore study.

“Caregivers face many burdens in life and often struggle to cope, feeling like they lack support or people to talk to. With time constraints and convenience issues, many caregivers cannot participate in face-to-face events that are often run by nonprofit organizations or the government and find that web-based groups tend to cater toward global or Western audiences rather than locally based Singapore residents,” the researchers said.

“The rise of technology and, in particular, mobile phones has created the opportunity to utilize technology to serve the caregiving community,” they added.

In developing the Caregivers’ Circle app, a survey was given to 103 caregivers to gain a better understanding of their needs and of the gaps they see in existing community networks. Two-thirds of respondents said that they were stressed, and they felt they lacked support in caring for their care recipient. [JMIR Nurs 2021;4:e25679]

Moreover, 38.8 percent noted that their own health has deteriorated since becoming a caregiver. These sentiments were confirmed in subsequent interviews with 29 participants.

Many caregivers pointed out that existing web-based forums or communication channels are often mostly occupied by caregivers in Western countries, making it difficult for Singaporeans to relate or to find value in the discussions and recommendations. Most existing Singaporean-centred online communities are hosted on social media platforms that elicit concerns about privacy and security.

Taking these insights into consideration, the researchers developed the Caregivers’ Circle app to provide Singaporean caregivers an online platform to engage with their community. It features a “caregroups” function, which allows users to hold private discussions with their app contacts, as well as a public “forum” to host community-wide conversations.

The app also includes a “friends” feature for easier searching and navigation, as well as a “marketplace” that allows users to buy and sell their items. Caregivers’ Circle can be used in both Android and iOS platforms to accommodate most Singaporeans.

Respondents were overall positive about the app and felt that it could help them live a better quality of life. In particular, the forum and caregroups functions were tagged as especially useful to discuss profession-related issues with other caregivers, as well as provide a sense of community and make them feel less alone. Many were also receptive of the marketplace feature, which they said could help them purchase caregiving-related items that would otherwise be difficult to find or be expensive elsewhere.

However, reception of the friends feature, particularly with geolocation, was mixed. Some agreed that it could be a helpful way to make local friends, while others raised concerns about privacy.

“Future testing should investigate the usability of the app over a longer period of time to truly gauge the longevity and sustainability of the app. Upon taking the user feedback into consideration, further testing should also investigate the effects of the app on caregivers’ quality of life and the effect on loneliness over a longer period of time to evaluate the impact of the app,” the researchers said.

“Caregivers’ Circle is unique in its integrated approach. By integrating many features that caregivers need on a daily basis into an easy app can save time as well as provide help to navigate their caregiving smoothly,” they added.