{"id":307126,"date":"2010-02-11T10:46:42","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T15:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/careandsupport.direct.gov.uk\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2010-02-11T10:46:42","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T15:46:42","slug":"harrogate-telecare-leads-the-way-in-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/307126","title":{"rendered":"Harrogate telecare leads the way in prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PH-Harrogate-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the third leg of his tour highlighting good practice in care and support, Care Services Minister Phil Hope travelled to Yorkshire to visit a telecare project that is helping people to live safely in their own homes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greenfield Court in Harrogate is a complex of ten homes, called \u201cwise homes\u201d, for older people. The flats and bungalows are equipped with state of the art assistive technologies which help them to live independently and safely. These include sensors that switch on the lights when a resident gets out of bed, temperature detectors to stop houses getting too hot or cold and flood detectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh quality care and support should enable people to remain independent for longer,\u201d said Mr Hope. \u201cTelecare has an important role to play. North Yorkshire is a great example of innovative support that is breaking the mould and challenging perceptions of care. Less than 5% of people understand that telecare is available. This is why I wanted to come and help raise awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hope spoke to managers and local Government officials and then visited Greenfield Court residents to hear how telecare is making a difference to their lives.<\/p>\n

One of these residents was 84-year-old Gwen Shepley, a former nurse who is staying in a smart home flat for telecare assessment, after which a tailored care package will be provided in her own home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ali Rogan, Group Marketing Director of the Tunstall Healthcare Group, who supply the equipment at Greenfield Court, explained the kind of support the flat offers Gwen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a sensor underneath the mattress. As soon as she gets out of bed the clock starts ticking. The lights go on automatically so she can see. If she isn\u2019t back in bed within a certain time, say fifteen minutes, then staff are notified.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gwen is particularly pleased with her new watch, which is fitted with an alarm button.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis allows her to call for help at any time,\u201d said Ms Rogan. \u201cShe loves it. She needed a new watch, she said. It is an alternative to a pendent, which some prefer not to have as they see it a badge of infirmity. We\u2019re trying to get away from that and make it less obtrusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

After visiting the flats Mr Hope paid an impromptu visit to the caf\u00e9 area at the complex and spoke to more residents and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne lady said to me this is a lovely place to live,\u201d he said. \u201cShe said she couldn\u2019t think of a single thing to complain about. She said even if she did complain they\u2019d put it right straight away. So it\u2019s clearly a place that gives people the support that they need in a way that helps them to live the life they want to. It shows we are getting it right. And if we can get it right here we should be able to get it right across the country.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

North Yorkshire County Council has saved over \u00a31 million through telecare over the last year. This money would otherwise have been spent on domiciliary or residential care. This cut the average person\u2019s care costs by 38%, which is an average saving of \u00a33,600 per person.<\/p>\n

Derek Law, Corporate Director of Adult and Community Services, \u201cThis has got to be mainstream, not seen as unusual. To ensure that it is embedded you have to work very hard at training and raising awareness of its benefits in terms of cost too. Once you\u2019ve embedded it like that, it really takes off.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Telecare could prevent 160,000 people from entering residential care per year, with potential cost savings of \u00a32.0 billion per year, according to Department of Health estimates.\u00a0 However, 98% of UK adults are unaware that assistive technologies are an important part of social care, new research commissioned by the Department of Health has revealed.<\/p>\n

Stakeholders, local government, and the voluntary and housing sectors came on board in the early days of the Harrogate project. There are now telecare champions in the region who go out and have regular meetings with a range of organisations. They are looking at ways to spread the technology beyond older people and using it to help people with physical and learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the best examples in the country,\u201d Mr Hope said. \u201cNot only because the use of the equipment really does make a difference to people\u2019s lives, but also all the different people who get involved with it. The GPs, the council, people who provide residential homes or sheltered accommodation – all these different people working together in partnership to make this happen in the interest of the person needing care and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what they\u2019ve done here is not only get the kit right they\u2019ve also got the relationships right. It means you can provide better quality care for people and that you can also save money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of technology I\u2019ve seen today can help people stay in their own homes and be part of their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the third leg of his tour highlighting good practice in care and support, Care Services Minister Phil Hope travelled to Yorkshire to visit a telecare project that is helping people to live safely in their own homes. Greenfield Court in Harrogate is a complex of ten homes, called \u201cwise homes\u201d, for older people. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}