Policy
National policy, including the recent White Paper "Our
Health, Our Care, Our Say" and the Supporting People
strategy issued by the former ODPM for consultation in early
2006, stresses the importance of 'preventative' strategies
and approaches to enabling people to continue living in their
own homes for as long as possible. The Department of Health
has clearly signalled that the use of assistive technology
presents an opportunity to deliver this policy objective as
a reality for many older people and other vulnerable people.
From April 2006 for a period of two years, the DH has made
available a specific grant, the Preventative Technology Grant,
to all local authorities in England to develop locally their
approaches to increasing the range and quantity of assistive
technology to older people and other vulnerable people. The
DH expectation is that nationally an additional 80,000 older
people will benefit from assistive technology to remain living
in their own homes.
Problems
Many local social services and housing authorities have funded
to some extent the provision of basic community alarms for
older people and to a very limited degree other client groups,
such as people with learning difficulties. This has meant
that the potential benefit of assistive technology has only
been available to a minority of people that could benefit
from its applications and resources have tended to be focused
on higher cost and higher intensity services. The scope of
modern assistive technology including environmental control
equipment, telecare and communication devices seldom been
fully appreciated.
Local health services, particularly primary care trusts,
have begun to examine how forms of assistive technology, including
telemedicine, can be effective in enabling patients with chronic
conditions to remain in the community and avoid admissions
to hospital when used alongside other community services,
such as the deployment of community matrons and other recent
developments in community based health care. The use of low
cost forms of assistive technology as part of local strategies
to, for example, reduce the incidence of falls amongst old
people, is also relatively under-developed.
Commissioning strategies for other client needs, such as
people with learning difficulties and mental health needs,
have tended to underplay the potential role of assistive technology
in developing individualised services, improving communication,
managing risk and personal safety aiding independence in a
variety of ways and potentially offering lower cost, better,
solutions to high levels of staffing.
Local authorities and their partners are faced with needing
to rapidly test out different forms of assistive technology
well beyond basic emergency alarms, using the Preventative
Technology Grant from government, with targets to increase
the number of older people in particular that have access
to assistive technology. There is currently a lack of local
strategies that set out how assistive technology can meet
both the aspirations of individuals to live in their own homes
safely and securely and the aspirations of local authorities
and health services to help people to remain living independently
within their limited resources.
There are gaps in terms of how to assess the part assistive
technology can play for individuals and then in specifying
equipment. There are few widely experienced people and an
absence of independent help.
H & S P Solutions
Working with local authorities, usually in conjunction with
PCTs and local housing associations and other agencies, we
can develop practical strategies and plans to make the best
use of the widest range of assistive forms of technology that
will meet the requirements of different organisations and
individuals:
- For older people it offers an opportunity to use assistive
technology to remain living in their own homes for as long
as possible or to have the use of assistive technology within
more specialised forms of housing, such as extra care housing.
- For people with learning difficulties the use of assistive
technology can enable and promote more individualised and
supported living services with benefits in terms of more
control for the individual and potentially at lower cost
to the funders.
- For primary care trusts assistive technology and telemedicine
represents an opportunity to support local strategies to
reduce acute admissions, reduce the incidence of falls,
and promote public health strategies.
- For social services assistive technology is a way of delivering
their well-being objectives including complementing conventional
approaches to maintaining people at home with home care
and other services. It also provides a way of targeting
these forms of technology at those sections of the local
population who currently don’t use personal social
services and may be able to avoid doing so in the longer
term if they have access to assistive technology.
- For Supporting People commissioners the use of assistive
technology provides a relatively low cost method for providing
preventative support services to a large number of people.
It also represents an opportunity to deliver financial savings
from traditionally higher cost services, for example supported
housing for people with mental health needs, where forms
of assistive technology can reduce in some cases the demand
for high intensity staffing.
We can develop strategies to make best use of the Preventative
Technology Grant and help local authorities and their partners
deliver practical and tangible benefits for individuals in
ways that can become part of the mainstream of service delivery
in the future.
We are also able to provide the option of getting assistance
to assess, specify and if required help install products through
a partnership with a company that supplies assistive technology
products. We can offer in house staff training on about the
use of assistive technology and offer help at an organisational
level in assessing the place of assitive technology across
services, building a business plan, advice on introducing
this kind of change and funding options.
Examples
We have recently undertaken work for Advance Housing and
Support Ltd supported by the Department of Health to identify
uses of assistive technology for people with learning difficulties.
This includes an analysis of funding, cost benefit equation
and seven examples of how different assistive technology has
changed people lives.
Gadgets, Gizmos and Gaining Independence
Assistive Technology and People with Learning Disabilities
Wrote the Department of Health factsheet (No. 5) on Assistive
Technology in Extra Care Housing.
Carried out evaluations of alarm systems for a number of
clients and supported re-tendering of monitoring services.
Provided advice to care providers and individuals/families
on what assistive technology to install as part of support
packages. |
