Assistive technology could save health and social care up to £270 million a year according to Local Government Association (LGA) estimates.
The LGA made its forecast following analysis of Europe’s biggest pilot run by Kent County Council, to test the impact of assistive technology on care for people with heart and lung conditions, and diabetes.
The council found it saved £7.5 million annually. This could amount to £270 million if rolled out nationally.
Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr David Rogers, said: “Councils have been the trailblazers with telecare and telehealth and the whole of society is now reaping the benefits.
“Investing in technology like this has been proven to reduce the need for hospital admission, GP referral, home help, day care and residential care. This saves taxpayers’ money in the long term at a time when the demand for adult care is rising and funding is falling.”
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Thursday, 11 November 2010
CSED evaluation tool
The Care Services Efficiency Delivery (CSED) programme has produced a toolkit and guidance for evaluating the impact of telecare on the cost and effectiveness of social care and health services.
The Telecare Evaluation Guide provides step by step instructions on how to select appropriate samples for testing, and how to collect and analyse data. It has already been used by several authorities in the region.
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
The Telecare Evaluation Guide provides step by step instructions on how to select appropriate samples for testing, and how to collect and analyse data. It has already been used by several authorities in the region.
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
Three more join telecare projects
Sandwell, Coventry and Wolverhampton are set to join the region’s major telecare pilot projects.
The pilots, match funded by the JIP and the councils involved, have been set up to explore the impact of telecare on personalising services for service users, their carers and families, as well as providing efficiencies for local authorities and the health sector.
Already underway are schemes in:
• Dudley – focused on hospital discharge and reablement. Activities include raising awareness and understanding of reablement across health and social care; devel-oping tools and mechanisms for referring patients to reablement services and eval-uating the results. Thirty four people have been referred so far, with £10k invested in telecare equipment. The pilot has been extended for a further three months.
• Birmingham – centred on reduction of night cover for ten service users with learning disabilities. Appropriate equipment has been put in place and demonstrated to families and carers.
• Staffordshire – where different levels of support will be provided to individuals with learning disabilities and service users living in sheltered accommodation, ranging from pill dispensers to promote independence, to Just Checking wireless sensors to monitor individuals’ movements.
• Worcestershire – providing telecare training for health and social care staff working in intermediate care, and promoting independence teams; plus provision of assistive technology as part of care packages.
Sandwell will pilot use of telecare in carrying out virtual visits as part of a care package; Coventry will increase the use of telecare in its Housing with Care scheme; and Wolverhampton will provide telecare across two pilots: one in a high level sheltered housing scheme, and the other for people with learning disabilities
All pilots will be evaluated using the CSED evaluation tool which provides a mechanism for assessing the impact of telecare services used in the pilots.
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
The pilots, match funded by the JIP and the councils involved, have been set up to explore the impact of telecare on personalising services for service users, their carers and families, as well as providing efficiencies for local authorities and the health sector.
Already underway are schemes in:
• Dudley – focused on hospital discharge and reablement. Activities include raising awareness and understanding of reablement across health and social care; devel-oping tools and mechanisms for referring patients to reablement services and eval-uating the results. Thirty four people have been referred so far, with £10k invested in telecare equipment. The pilot has been extended for a further three months.
• Birmingham – centred on reduction of night cover for ten service users with learning disabilities. Appropriate equipment has been put in place and demonstrated to families and carers.
• Staffordshire – where different levels of support will be provided to individuals with learning disabilities and service users living in sheltered accommodation, ranging from pill dispensers to promote independence, to Just Checking wireless sensors to monitor individuals’ movements.
• Worcestershire – providing telecare training for health and social care staff working in intermediate care, and promoting independence teams; plus provision of assistive technology as part of care packages.
Sandwell will pilot use of telecare in carrying out virtual visits as part of a care package; Coventry will increase the use of telecare in its Housing with Care scheme; and Wolverhampton will provide telecare across two pilots: one in a high level sheltered housing scheme, and the other for people with learning disabilities
All pilots will be evaluated using the CSED evaluation tool which provides a mechanism for assessing the impact of telecare services used in the pilots.
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
Survey shows telecare information could be improved
Information about telecare and assistive technology can be limited and hard to find on the region’s council websites according to the results of a survey commissioned by the JIP.
Telecare lead workers, communication officers, representatives from third sector organisations and social housing, were asked questions about the quality of information available and how easy it is to find.
Responses reveal:
• 49% of local authority websites do not have a dedicated page for telecare products or assistive technology
• 10% of respondents questioned found it easy to find telecare pages on the sites while 41% found it difficult or failed to locate information
• 31% found a great deal of information on telecare was hidden behind traditional services such as homecare, residential services and day care.
Asked about what they would like to see on the website, respondents said they would want:
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
Telecare lead workers, communication officers, representatives from third sector organisations and social housing, were asked questions about the quality of information available and how easy it is to find.
Responses reveal:
• 49% of local authority websites do not have a dedicated page for telecare products or assistive technology
• 10% of respondents questioned found it easy to find telecare pages on the sites while 41% found it difficult or failed to locate information
• 31% found a great deal of information on telecare was hidden behind traditional services such as homecare, residential services and day care.
Asked about what they would like to see on the website, respondents said they would want:
- pictures and diagrams of products (92%)
- information downloads including ‘how to’ guides (90%)
- information on where to buy products (95%)
- views of people who have bought a product (92%)
- product and reader reviews to download (95%)
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
Telecare website takes shape
A demonstration site for an online telecare portal has been built in response to findings from a JIP survey that shows information on council websites about telecare and assistive technology can be improved.
The portal will be a one stop site for information about assistive technology products and services; their suitability, how they work and where to buy them. Contents will be for the public as well as practitioners, and will allow people to rate or review products. Customers may also be able to buy directly on line.
Next stage of development involves identifying the type and range of products councils want to promote, plus linking the site to suppliers and retailers, and price information across the region.
The portal will be launched at a Cross Midlands by March 2011.
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
The portal will be a one stop site for information about assistive technology products and services; their suitability, how they work and where to buy them. Contents will be for the public as well as practitioners, and will allow people to rate or review products. Customers may also be able to buy directly on line.
Next stage of development involves identifying the type and range of products councils want to promote, plus linking the site to suppliers and retailers, and price information across the region.
The portal will be launched at a Cross Midlands by March 2011.
Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk
Telecare and Telehealth – what is the difference?
Both telecare and telehealth are about helping people to manage their own health and wellbeing while maintaining their independence.
What is Telecare?
• It is a service for vulnerable people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or other frailties, who need the support of social care or health, to keep them independent in their own homes
• Telecare uses a mix of alarms, sensors and other equipment to monitor individuals and make sure they are safe. For example, sensors can raise a call for help in an emergency such as falls, fires or floods
• It is designed to support carers and people living alone. For example, a bed sensor can raise an alarm if someone gets out of bed and does not return, and it can be combined with an automatic light sensor to turn the lights on when an individual gets out of bed so they can see where they are going
• Telecare can give carers respite and peace of mind
What is telehealth?
• It is a way of caring for people with long term health conditions, helping them to improve their quality of life, prevent avoidable hospital admissions and reduce the frequency of visits to GP surgeries
• Telehealth uses equipment to monitor people’s health in their own home for example; personal monitors for blood pressure, weight or blood oxygen levels
• Readings are automatically transmitted via a phone line to a clinician who can analyse the patient’s condition
• Abnormal readings are picked up and appropriate action is taken.
Details of equipment can be found on the Telecare Services Association (TSA) website.
What is Telecare?
• It is a service for vulnerable people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or other frailties, who need the support of social care or health, to keep them independent in their own homes
• Telecare uses a mix of alarms, sensors and other equipment to monitor individuals and make sure they are safe. For example, sensors can raise a call for help in an emergency such as falls, fires or floods
• It is designed to support carers and people living alone. For example, a bed sensor can raise an alarm if someone gets out of bed and does not return, and it can be combined with an automatic light sensor to turn the lights on when an individual gets out of bed so they can see where they are going
• Telecare can give carers respite and peace of mind
What is telehealth?
• It is a way of caring for people with long term health conditions, helping them to improve their quality of life, prevent avoidable hospital admissions and reduce the frequency of visits to GP surgeries
• Telehealth uses equipment to monitor people’s health in their own home for example; personal monitors for blood pressure, weight or blood oxygen levels
• Readings are automatically transmitted via a phone line to a clinician who can analyse the patient’s condition
• Abnormal readings are picked up and appropriate action is taken.
Details of equipment can be found on the Telecare Services Association (TSA) website.
Welcome
As Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “We have to maximise the potential of reablement, telecare and other innovations that can dramatically improve people’s lives while also being highly efficient.
“Some local authorities have picked up this challenge, others have not. We need to accelerate this change so that these services and this approach is the norm.”
It’s this principle that underpins the JIP’s telecare support programme which is helping local authorities in the West Midlands expand the scope of telecare to make services more efficient, assist service users to live independently in their own homes, and promote joined up working between health and social care.
We are also spearheading a series of pilot projects in local authorities across the region, to show the impact telecare can have on the cost, quality and the personalisation of services.
We’ve invested in the development of an online one stop telecare information portal. Still at prototype stage, it will eventually carry all the information needed to find out about services, products, where to buy them and how to use them.
We are aware telecare and telehealth still arouses suspicion that personal contact between practitioners and service users will be reduced leading to greater isolation, as well as redundancies and increased workloads for staff left behind.
Ultimately it is just one of the responses to how we, as practitioners in social care and the health services, can care for a rapidly expanding ageing population in a cost effective way and to a high standard.
Paul A Davies
Lead DASS for Telecare
Executive Director of Adult Social
Care and Inclusion
Walsall Metropolitan Borough.
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