Penelope is an older woman who takes care of her 93 year old mother and son with cerebral palsy. She has been caregiving for her mother who lives in senior residence for 8 years. Her mother has mobility issues and uses a walker. Penelope has been caregiving for her son for 26 years and he lives in a homecare facility, is non-verbal and immobile, requiring a manual wheel chair to get around. Penelope spends about 24 hours/week doing caregiving activities.
| Needs | Current Approaches Used by Penelope | Alternate suggestions | What could be created? |
| 1. Penelope is having difficulty pushing her son in his wheelchair. | |||
| 2. Penelope needs to be able to communicate effectively with multiple/formal caregivers since her mother and son both live in facilities and not with her. | Tyze – website to help organize appointments and keep a schedule for her son, this bridges the gap between formal and informal caregivers so they are aware of all appointments. | ||
| 3. Penelope needs to help her mother, who has mobility problems to pick things up or get things from a higher surface. | Penelope has provided a reacher, but her mother doesn’t use it. | ||
| 4. Penelope wants to help her mother with housekeeping since she does not live with her. | Her mother has someone who cleans 2-3 times a week, but it is not deep cleaning, just superficial cleaning. | ||
| 5. Penelope wants to decrease demands from her son, who does not appreciate the cost of items given his developmental disability. | |||
| 6. Penelope wants to be able to find ways to get her mother to accept more help. | |||
| 7. Penelope needs to be able to get around with her son in his wheelchair, but is having problems with the reliability of the wheelchair van she bought second-hand. | |||
| 8. Penelope wants to decrease her son’s choking episodes. | Adjusted wheelchair headrest to help reduce choking. | ||
| 9. Penelope needs to find ways to get medication for her son, as some of it is not covered. | They advocated for it to get an exception. |