{"id":447670,"date":"2010-03-19T13:25:15","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T17:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/careandsupport.direct.gov.uk\/?p=3252"},"modified":"2010-03-19T13:25:15","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T17:25:15","slug":"prevention-%e2%80%93-telecare-service-cheshire-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/447670","title":{"rendered":"Prevention \u2013 Telecare Service, Cheshire East"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The telecare service in Cheshire East Council helps people with care needs to remain in their own homes for longer by making use of new developments in assistive technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The telecare service in Cheshire East Council offers assistive technology to people who are at risk when they are alone at home.\u00a0 Assistive technology is equipment which is installed in someone\u2019s home and sends an automatic alert to a call centre when a problem is detected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effect of that,\u201d says Jon Wilkie, the Project Manager for Assistive Technology at Cheshire East Council Adult Social Services, \u201cis that people can stay at home longer. They can remain in their own home, which the vast majority of people are very keen to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new generation of telecare<\/strong><\/p>\n

Staff from Cheshire East Council Adult Social Services carry out an assessment to find out an individual\u2019s particular needs and the specific risks they face. They then discuss what technology may help and how it can be installed in the person\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

Alarm pendants and buttons are the traditional forms of telecare. These are activated when an individual presses a button to alert carers that they need help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of more recent developments in telecare is that you don\u2019t actually have to initiate something yourself, it\u2019s automatic,\u201d says Jon.<\/p>\n

Fall detectors are one example of how telecare has developed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou clip the fall detector onto your belt and it is activated by a combination of tilt and impact,\u201d Jon explains. \u201cSo if you trip over and fall, the unit knows that something\u2019s wrong and it\u2019ll give you six seconds to get yourself up.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve not be able to move in those six seconds, the alert will go through to the call centre or the nominated phone number to signal that there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother example is a bed sensor that would be placed under the mattress in a bed. Generally, it would be used where there are concerns about someone falling in the night time. People aren\u2019t likely to wear the fall detector when they get out of bed to go to the toilet, but that can be when people fall. So you would allow somebody, say ten minutes depending on their routine and habits.\u00a0 If they\u2019re not back in bed within those ten minutes, then an alert is produced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can give somebody some peace of mind that somebody\u2019s there for them should they need it, and they don\u2019t necessarily need to initiate that contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0This also importantly offers peace of mind to people who are important to the person using the equipment such as family members, carers, and friends.<\/p>\n

Improving assessments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Telecare is also helping to improve how Cheshire East Council assesses the risks people face by using equipment such as the Lifestyle Monitoring System. The monitor uses a range of sensors installed in the house to detect movement and build a picture of how someone is moving around. This is particularly useful if carers or family members are concerned about what is happening to someone when they are on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we used this technology, the care manager or the social worker would do an assessment. Part of that process would involve talking to relatives and carers about how they felt that person was managing when they weren\u2019t there,\u201d says Jon.\u00a0 \u201cThis technology gives us the opportunity to get a picture of how people are functioning in their own home when support isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a number of situations where there have been real concerns about somebody being at risk because they are not sleeping at night or leaving their property during the night time. Often we\u2019ve found through this system that they\u2019re okay and the risks are not there. However, there have been some situations where the system has shown that someone\u2019s been up all night, so it\u2019s no wonder they\u2019ve been having falls and feeling tired during the daytime,\u201d says Jon.<\/p>\n

Supporting people to stay in their own homes<\/strong><\/p>\n

This sort of technology helps Jon and teams support people to stay at home when that is their wish, and where it is appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked with a number of people who\u2019ve been on the cusp of going into residential or nursing care and this has been the last opportunity to assess whether their needs can be met in their own home and it\u2019s shown that they could remain at home,\u201d he says. \u201cOften, we\u2019ve identified the risks through the lifestyle monitoring, and then we can put in pieces of technology to manage those risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independence and peace of mind are two of the main benefits Jon sees in telecare.\u00a0 It allows teams to think more imaginatively and put in place systems that are personalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were working with a young man with learning disabilities and autism, and somebody needed to be with him all the time to make sure he wasn\u2019t having a seizure. His autism meant that he found it very difficult to tolerate other people being in his space. Through using telecare we were able to manage the risks of his medical diagnosis without staff being in his personal space.\u00a0 The effects were really positive, it meant he could do what he wanted to do, and stay where he wanted to stay,\u201d Jon says.<\/p>\n

Telecare offers real benefits for families of users too, who may be making extra calls or visits to their relatives to check on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe installed an epilepsy sensor recently for a woman who has nocturnal seizures,\u201d Jon says.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019d been in one of our short break services where we have telecare technologies and because she had a diagnosis of epilepsy we supported her with an epilepsy sensor at night time and the family were amazed. They said, \u2018we didn\u2019t know that these sensors existed, we think it\u2019s brilliant\u2019, so she has a sensor fitted in her bed at home.\u00a0 The sensor will alert her parents (who are her primary carers) in the next door room at night time instead of mum or dad listening out for sounds of a seizure and having to be on duty at night time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Better quality support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people have concerns about telecare. Jon finds the best way to reassure people is to sit down with them and explain the benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re sometimes worried about relying on technology too much; what if it fails, what if it doesn\u2019t work?\u00a0 With the lifestyle monitoring, there can be concerns about people literally seeing what they\u2019re doing and people giving away some personal privacy or freedom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer reassurance about the reliability of the technology we use and explain about the information that lifestyle monitoring produces.\u00a0 We also tend to couch our explanations outside the technology because it really isn\u2019t about the technology itself; it\u2019s about how this supports somebody and how the technology informs us about how to effectively support someone through a personal budget and or equipment as appropriate. The benefits really are the outcomes for that person which might be more independence; it might be that we\u2019re reducing or managing the risks the person faces which enables that person to stay at home for longer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The telecare service in Cheshire East Council helps people with care needs to remain in their own homes for longer by making use of new developments in assistive technology. The telecare service in Cheshire East Council offers assistive technology to people who are at risk when they are alone at home.\u00a0 Assistive technology is equipment […]<\/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-447670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447670","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=447670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}