In a world where everything is personalised, it is only natural to match caregivers with the elderly based on their personality profiles.

Anja Silbauer is the Co-founder and CEO of Harmony & Care - an Austrian startup providing caregiving agencies in Austria, Switzerland, Germany and the UK with a platform to match caregivers with the elderly. This eases care for caregivers and increases the satisfaction with the care of the elderly. It all began as a research project. “Five years ago we noticed that caregivers were often simply sent into a household without any process of finding out if the caregiver and the elderly person will get along. My co-founder’s mother suffers from dementia and the family decided to provide her 24-hour care. In the first three months, 10 caregivers were sent to her and she did not get along with any of them, more or less. This made us think that in a world where everything is individualized,  how can caregivers just come to a house and no one considers that it might be good to find a match of personalities? We designed a huge set of questions - around 330 - and then with the help of agencies and providers we downgraded it to a smaller but still large number of questions one needs to fill out. It takes about 20 minutes to go through the questionnaire,” explains Anja Silbauer, adding that in the case of individuals suffering from dementia the input of relatives is also important. 

The state of elderly care in Austria

According to OECD, health care coverage in Austria is near-universal, and accessibility of services is generally good. Austria is among the countries with the lowest self-reported unmet medical needs in the EU. While life expectancy has increased in recent years, behavioral risk factors remain a major driver of morbidity and mortality in Austria. Smoking among adults has not declined over the past two decades and is now more prevalent than in most other EU countries. Progress with restricting smoking in public places has been slow, and a smoking ban in establishments that provide hospitality was delayed again to late 2019. Although alcohol consumption has decreased since 2000, it remains above the EU average. 

In terms of elderly care, every Austrian, regardless of her income and financial status, is eligible for a so-called long-term care allowance. There are seven levels of allowance, determined based on an individual’s need. “For example, in level one, you get approximately 180 euros of state funding monthly, to care level seven, which goes up to 1700 euros per month,” says Anja Silbauer.

It’s all about making the elderly feel comfortable 

Right before the pandemic began, the team at Harmony & Care set up its own caregiving agency Care+. Prior to that, they were mostly working with caregiving agencies in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK. Then they thought - why not create an independent agency with additional training for the caregivers. “We wanted to educate caregivers and empower them about their rights in Austria. We established a company in Romania. There we educate and train people for becoming caregivers in Austria. We give them training about the basics of the German language, how to use technology, we give them books about the Austrian cuisine in Romania, etc. We also teach them about the legal rights they have in Australia as caregivers, and who they can turn to if something is not working well,” says Anja Silbauer. 

New technologies and trackers are coming to the market to enable remote monitoring and independence of the elderly at home for as long as possible. Hopefully, says Anja Silbauer, more of the medical app solutions will be available on prescription in the future. At some point, however, when an elderly person starts to suffer from dementia, falls, forgets to take medications or similar problems occur, more systematic caregiving is inevitable. “My hope is that we will be able to attract young people to the field in the future because we cannot rely on people from abroad to work in Austria forever. Hopefully, innovations such as robotics are going to further evolve to help caregivers in tasks that require lifting and physical strength which usually eventually lead to back pain and related issues.”

Tune in for the full discussion.

Some questions addressed: 

• Let’s start with understanding the elderly: what are their needs? What’s their every day like in general, based on your experience in this field? 

• According to OECD health care coverage is near-universal, and accessibility of services is generally good. Austria is among the countries with the lowest self-reported unmet medical needs in the EU. What I am wondering is, to which extent do people in your opinion rely on the healthcare system to take care of them in old age? How supportive is the system to the elderly? How well are social and healthcare services connected to enable optimal care for the elderly? 

• You are present in Austria, Germany - how do the countries compare in terms of support you’re offering? 

• What does the caregiving at home vs. nursing home market look like? 

• Your software matches caregivers and the elderly. How does it work? How extensive is the methodology? How are you refining it over the years? 

• Did it ever happen that the match did not work? 

• Do you also use or follow the development of smart home technologies that aim at helping the elderly stay home as long as possible? 

• Can you tell us more about the full-time caregiving model you designed and establishes right before COVID?

• Where do you see the future of your work and elderly care in a more general sense? How does society need to adapt to the rapidly aging population? What are the realistic possibilities of using technology vs. manual labor (caregivers)?