Hampshire County Council (HCC) recognised that sustainable improvement in telecare-related outcomes requires a fundamental shift in behaviours amongst care professionals. Staff need to become advocates and telecare must be deployed instead of other more costly service components, with clear service user outcome objectives set at the point of referral.
This session will focus on how we can raise awareness of technology solutions and promote them more effectively to support people balancing work, care and family life.
At 52, Mick Burkhill was a successful Regional Sales Manager who enjoyed his life. In 2007, things took a dramatic turn for the worst and he had to make a life changing decision; Move into residential care or embrace the idea of Telecare. Six years later, Mick remains at home and values his independence more than ever - he openly admits that Telecare saved his life.
In recognition of his life changing experience, Mick realised that he had a great story to tell and wanted as many people to hear about it as possible. His aim was to promote the awareness of telecare to the masses and more importantly, engage with those people who had concerns about how the implementation of assistive technology would impact on their day to day lives.
This workshop will detail the evolution of the ‘Mick’s House’ initiative, its current status, successes so far and ask what’s next?
Clare Smith, Suffolk County Council Development Manager, will outline an innovative approach to embedding and commissioning Assistive Technology. She will explore Council outcomes; why they moved away from the traditional Commissioner/Provider model and instead engaged with the market to ultimately establish a joint Community Interest Company with ‘Community Voice Careline Response Ltd’ to provide county-wide consistent services including mobile response and equipment provision. The workshop will give an insight in to how the council went about looking for and selecting a compatible provider; the challenges faced; the notable successes the partnership has achieved and the further challenges & opportunities the partnership has been able to address. We will also hear from Victoria Shead, CEO of Community Voice, as to why they chose to enter the partnership; how the service was designed; the challenges faced by the provider and the positive aspects of entering such a partnership. Followed by a question and answer session.
Most Housing/Warden call schemes rely on a telephone line as a single emergency communication link with residents despite the advancements in fire and dispersed alarm technology in recent years. In the case of hard wired scheme equipment 30+ residents and a fire alarm panel could be left vulnerable if the line was in use or failed during an emergency.
Whilst for the foreseeable future we will remain dependent upon telephone lines, the risk can now be significantly reduced by utilising a robust wireless back-up path that can access any available mobile phone network.
