Telecare systems can make savings while helping people
to stay independent for longer, but it is best to start off small.
Report by Andrew Mickel
For all the obvious promise that telecare holds the best ideas
can come from the strangest of places. "About five years ago I was
having a conversation with this guy in a pub whose job it was to
install smart home technology for luxury apartments where they can
press a button to lock down the house," says Peter Russell, head of
community solutions at
Community Lives
Consortium, a support provider for adults with learning
disabilities in South Wales.
"What struck me was that most people we work with need staff to
do most of the basic things for them. In the morning it's about
things like opening windows and putting music on," he says.
Starting small
Before supporting such extensive needs, however, Russell had to
start small. He kitted out two test properties, including one for a
make sure she was OK, but she said that while it was nice people
were doing that, she was just getting a drink and was getting
annoyed," he says. "We installed a bed occupancy sensor which only
alerted someone if she hadn't returned to bed after 20
minutes."
That one example has been followed up with other technologies.
Incontinence sensors in beds, for example, mean that staff don't
have to disruptively check on users during the night, and can
quickly react when necessary.
While this is potentially expensive work, a monitored intruder
alarm system is typically fitted to a property and is paid for by
housing benefit. That provides the main communication line in and
out of a house which other technologies can be attached to
cheaply.
More savings come from being able to often replace the cost of
someone working waking shifts with someone who can sleep and just
be alerted when alarms are sounded. In some cases, it may now be
possible to move to replace on-site staff entirely with a rapid
response team.
Telecare is now being used in 70 of the consortium's 80
properties across Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot. For people
hoping to replicate the model, Russell says: "Don't see new
projects as pilot schemes as they have a limited shelf life – just
start things small. The success will spread by word of mouth once
the technology is proven."
Flood and fire prevention
Hanover Housing is working with Hackney Council to support
telecare arrangements in the homes of 947 older people. So far, 461
monitored smoke detectors and 176 monitored flood detectors have
been installed in people's homes which will alert a central call
centre when triggered, but the technology is being used in
conjunction with less hi-tech innovations to ensure the least
intrusive system is in operation.
Bruce Moore, chief executive of Hanover Housing, says: "A flood
detector is put on the floor of the bathroom and it can trigger an
alarm in the property if, for example, someone with dementia blocks
a sink with a flannel.
"But we also fit
magiplugs as standard, a
basic device that opens itself to drain once it has a certain
weight of water on it. That doesn't need monitoring and only costs
a few pounds."
Hanover's approach of coupling hi-tech with the low-tech is
matched by keeping the focus on using the technology in conjunction
with people. "You need someone to be able to respond straight
away," he says. "Equipment is the trigger for the services but what
is important in telecare is the follow-up. The first response goes
to the family or carers of a user; our own response team is just
the last line of defence."
Including tests and false alarms which comprised roughly half of
all calls, last year there were 428 alerts on the smoke detectors
and 253 on the flood detectors.
Easing a return to independence
Cheshire East Council will be starting a re-ablement programme
in July and it will include a telecare element. But rather than
work out what technologies are needed from scratch, it is learning
from work it has done with other groups.
One example helps to ensure that people are settling in to
independent living properly, says Jon Wilkie, the council's lead
for assistive technology. "We had someone with a learning
disability who was living independently for the first time, and we
heard concerns from their parents that he was being targeted by
people to clean him out of food and drink," he says.
Wilkie's team installed an assessment system called Just
Checking as a temporary measure for three weeks. A series of door
sensors and beams, similar to those used in burglar alarm systems
were installed to record and send information over the internet to
show what was happening in the house over a 24-hour period.
"Their movements suggested that wasn't happening," he says. "And
we can now use it for an older person to see if someone could
manage on their own. If we think they can stay on their own it
could give them more independence."
Wilkie projects that over 20 people a week on the programme
could use telecare as part of their re-enablement plan.
Published in the 18 June edition of Community Care under the
heading 'In the Realm of the Sensors'