Blog: Assistive technology and Adult Social Care
Blog
Andy Begley, Head of Adult Social Care Operations at Shropshire Council, writes about using assistive technology to support people in Shropshire to live more safely and independently.
On 17 September Shropshire Council formally launched its partnership with the Tunstall Advisory Service to deliver assistive technology across the County. As the responsible officer for Adult Social Care Transformation in Shropshire it was a proud day for me, seeing us take the first step on the road to changing the lives of some of the people who need support the most for the better.
This innovation has been born out of a recognition that as a county with one in four adults currently over the age of 65 and a rising number of people requiring support from Adult Social Care each year, we need to examine ways of making our services more sustainable. In addition to this, we want to continue to increase independence and wellbeing for users, providing personalised care that helps us to achieve our aim of enabling local people to have the freedom to live their lives to the full.
Shropshire Council already offers assistive technology through its telecare service, but by partnering with Tunstall we aim to make it easier for local people to access the latest technology and to help themselves or their family independently, or as part of a wider package of care.
We hope that by offering an alternative to traditional services we will not only help to support independence and improve quality of life for local people but it will also enable us to deliver more cost-effective services by facilitating early intervention and reducing unnecessary hospital admissions.
Our embracing assistive technology event aimed to share this vision with stakeholders by:
Announcing the commencement of the partnership between Shropshire Council and Tunstall Healthcare
Mark the start of Shropshire’s wider approach to collaborative innovation
Raise awareness of the activity that will be occurring over the coming months to develop a new Assistive Technology delivery model and to embed the provision of technology into day-to-day working practices
Showcase the sorts of technology which will feature in Shropshire Council’s future plans
As someone closely involved with the event my opinion may not be entirely unbiased but I found it to be extremely inspiring; combining the possibilities presented by technology with real stories of people who are benefitting from assistive technology every day.
Take Mr and Mrs F. Mrs F is 79 and has dementia. She is relatively mobile, and has a tendency to leave the house and walk onto a nearby busy road. Mr F likes to ‘potter around’ in the garden and have an afternoon nap, but was unable to do so due to constantly worrying about his wife leaving their property. Our solution was to supply a CareAssist pager, motion sensors and a property exit sensor. If Mrs F tried to exit the property or went into another room, her husband would be alerted via the pager and could respond accordingly. This use of assistive technology has enabled Mrs F to remain safe and as independent as possible in her own home, and gave Mr F peace of mind and allowed him to enjoy his rest and leisure activities. Ultimately the equipment has enabled Mr F to continue caring for his wife (which is what he wants to do!) and ensure that she can remain in her own home rather than moving into residential care.
By working with the Tunstall Advisory Service team we aim to increase our capacity to deliver community-based care and help many more people like Mr and Mrs F. Our partnership will build on existing resources to build overall programme awareness and develop staff skills, with Tunstall’s specialist training staff and telehealthcare experts helping us to optimise care pathways by embedding assistive technology.
So how will we know if this new approach is working? For a start, we’ve set up the initiative to have a true focus on outcomes. So although we will be measuring the increased number of people using assistive technology, we will be closely monitoring the impact this has on the lives of those people and their relatives. As an example we would expect to see the reduction in falls, and also the reduction in the severity of consequences following a fall. As well as seeing this from an individual perspective we would also look to evidence an overall reduction in the use of A&E services and 999 calls.
Every journey starts with a single step, and we will look back on 17 September as the day we began our journey to transform Adult Social Care using assistive technology as part of our wider commitment to helping people in Shropshire to live safely and independently in a place of their choice.
Find out more about assistive technology in Shropshire.
