A school student assisting a resident from Blue Care's Yurana Aged Care Facility to play Nintendo Wii ten-pin bowling.

Aged care staff are enthusiastic about the physical and mental benefits for older clients who use the Nintendo Wii game console, according to an Australian study.

Not-for-profit provider Blue Care has conducted an evaluation of the Wii in aged care after rolling out the technology at 53 of its services in Queensland and northern NSW midway through last year.

The Wii is different from conventional gaming systems because it requires users to move their bodies in a way which reflects the activity they are ‘performing’, rather than just pressing buttons or moving a joystick.

“One of the most interesting outcomes of the evaluation was the agreement and enthusiasm among staff about the physical and psychosocial benefits of using Wii, particularly with young disabled clients and with able older clients,” said the group’s Business Improvement Officer, Dr Helen Higgins.

“The benefits of such technology have been noted in research literature before, but mostly in young disabled populations within educational settings, not so much in aged and community care.”

Throughout the Blue Care facilities, the Wiis have been incorporated into structured programs for groups and individuals.

The game consoles are also being used to foster intergenerational relationships between aged care service users and school children.
 
The most popular game among the Blue Care users is ten-pin bowling.

“We found that the highest demand for the use of Wii activities came from centre-based respite services with 42 per cent of services purchasing additional equipment to support the activities,” said Dr Higgins.

Blue Care is thinking about forming a Wii user group throughout its services along with organisational guidelines on the use of the console and similar technologies.

“We recognise the importance of assessing each client’s condition and abilities before their involvement in any Wii program as different games may suit particular client groups,” Dr Higgins said.

“We also understand that staff supervision and training is important to ensure clients benefit to the fullest degree from such technology.”

The findings from Blue Care’s evaluation report will be presented at the International Health in Transition Conference in Adelaide next month.