Report to the People
21st August 2006
The Technological Age
Those
of us of a certain age like the odd moan about technology - usually after
spending half an hour on the phone pressing button after button in the vain hope
of speaking to someone in a call centre, or having to queue at the checkout in
Tesco’s because we don’t want to use the new self-service tills.
But,
as an announcement last week reminded us, no matter how old we are, technology
can also be our servant.
After
a successful trial, £8million is to be spent on state-of-the-art technology
which will help older people stay in their own homes for longer.
The new technology - known as "telecare" - involves fitting a
range of innovative features to older people’s homes. These
can range from fall sensors and panic buttons to flood detectors, connected to a
round-the-clock emergency call and response service. The system can also be used to remind people to take their
medication.
What
all this means is that older people whose frailty, or perhaps dementia, may once
have forced them into residential care can now stay in their own home and live
more independently, safe in the knowledge that help is at hand if they need it.
Although
there are some excellent residential care homes, no-one wants to leave the house
in which they have lived happily for perhaps decades.
And technological advances like telecare, combined with the increased
investment in adapting older people’s homes to meet their needs, mean that
many will never have to.
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