Dementia care home to use AI technology

A high-tech home in Hamilton for 48 dementia and Alzheimer’s residents will be a first for North America says the engineer who developed the concept based on a care model in the Netherlands.

Nafia Al-Mutawaly, a former McMaster University engineering professor, designed the project being built by a private group of investors on West 5th at Stone Church Rd. on the Mountain.

Al- Mutawaly said the $15-million to $16-million long-term care facility is based on a Dutch Alzheimer village called Hogeweyk, “in terms of memory care” and “quality of life.”

It is a first in North America for this type of residence, he said.

“We took the Dutch model and added a vertical concept ( the living units are all in one building), and we introduced smart sensors and AI technology to learn more about dementia and dealing with it.”

The official groundbreaking for the home, Ressam Gardens, took pace last Thursday, with the opening planned for December 2020.

Al- Mutawaly said what makes this facility unique is that it will use artificial intelligence (AI) and smart technology to help care for the residents, and research Alzheimer and demen

tia care, as well as new technologies, to see what works best.

A GPS-type system, for example, will track the residents’ whereabouts at all times, in- doors and outdoors, to assist staff on a resident’s locations, and to find them quickly.

The four-storey building will have three floors of resident units, managed by Extendicare, which owns nursing homes across Canada.

The first floor is reserved for the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging and McMaster University’s engineering researchers.

“We’re trying to prove the concept (of this type of care) works,” Al-Mutawaly said.

“It is meant to be a prototype for future facilities.” It will be an AI-driven facility in that it will use sensors — even in the furniture — and technology to develop intelligent solutions, he said.

All residents must agree to be part of the research, Al-Mutawaly said. Each resident floor will have a kitchen, two living rooms and only 10 to 12 people, “so residents will feel as if they are still at home.”

Ressam Gardens is solely a private facility for people to apply to directly. He expects the fee to be $5,000 to $6,000 a month ($60,000 to $72,000 a year). Rasmerauh Al- Mutawaly Sadik, lost his two mother, years ago to Alzheimer’s. Ressam Gardens is named after her. Ressam was her childhood nickname.