Based at the Fellowship Centre in Aston, Aston & Cote Day Centre meets weekly and provides a warm, safe environment for seniors to get together, enjoy a meal, and participate in the various activities on offer.
Tessa and Rachel from Medequip Connect’s Community Engagement Team recently visited in October to discuss falls/long lies and demonstrate Medequip’s digital care technology. Aston & Cote started last autumn with just a handful of people.
“It’s impressive to see how the Day Centre’s grown,” said Tessa. “It’s about twice the size since the last time we came.”
Medequip Connect provide information and support.
As Technology Enabled Care Service providers, Medequip Connect rapidly arrange the support people need, when they need it. They also provide information for families and support agencies such as Falls Prevention teams to help them provide early support to people experiencing falls.
1 in 3 adults over 65 and half of people over 80 will have at least one fall a year according to NHS data. In addition to the risks associated with falling, such as fractures or being knocked unconscious, long lies or prolonged time spent on the floor can seriously impact someone’s health and well-being.
The inability to get up without help after falling is associated with several factors including elderliness, depression, and balance and gait problems. Research suggests that nearly half of non-injured fallers are unable to get up without assistance.
TEC connects people to the support they need, when they need it.
Technology Enabled Care (TEC) helps connect people to the support they need and reduces isolation by encouraging individuals to draw on their wider circle and support network, such as friends, family and carers. Over 60% of carers surveyed by Carers UK say telecare solutions gave them peace of mind.
“Lots of people are a bit wobbly when they first come out of hospital,” Tessa explained. “We work with hospital discharge teams to create basic care technology packs, which are ready to go as soon as the person is discharged. They don’t require a landline telephone and are set up the same day.”
Digital care technology promotes people’s strengths and enables them to continue to live safely and independently at home. Long gone are the days of stigmatising big red buttons and landline devices only working in one room of the house. Many Medequip Connect devices can be taken outside the home.
Aston & Cote seniors had the opportunity to test and try on outdoor falls alarms, such as a pendant-style wearable worn around the neck and a wrist-worn device that also functions as a watch. Demonstrating TEC working helps break down barriers to adoption as it builds people’s confidence and dispels myths and stigmas about care technology.
TEC is not a replacement for social care.
It’s also important to highlight that TEC is not a replacement for social care or the support provided by friends, carers and family members. Rather, care technology serves to ‘join up’ that support and can make visits more efficient and productive.
“People in receipt of social care and support sometimes don’t need or want to be checked up on at numerous times during the day,” Tessa explained. “It’s also important for providers of health and social care to use their staff time and resources effectively, especially as they face increasing pressures on their end. TEC can help to direct that support, flexing to meet people’s needs.”
Find out more about what the team got up to at Aston & Cote Day Centre next week in part 2, including more from the seniors and the excellent staff that keep the day centre running. We’ll be discussing the people-power behind care technology services and how TEC empowers independence.
Check out Part 2 of Rachel and Tessa’s visit to Aston & Cote Day Centre, where the seniors talk about their own experiences with falls; and find out more about the power of TEC!
Learn more about Aston & Cote Day Centre.