Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Smart speakers to help combat elderly isolation
ELDERLY people in Bristol could be given smart speakers to cut down on isolation and give reminders about taking medication as part of a new project.
Sound monitors in the bedrooms of care homes could warn staff of any potential falls, and fridge alerts could also warn family members if a relative hasn’t made a cup of tea at the usual time.
Bristol City Council’s technologyenabled care project has received a boost of £769,813 extra funding, using new technology to help support people in care.
Council chiefs said the project was “not about tech replacing people” but would work alongside carers. The cabinet approved the funding on Tuesday and heard details about the scheme.
Councillor Helen Holland, cabinet member for social care, said: “People use a lot of tech in their lives anyway, so there’s no reason to assume that once they need some support that we can’t use tech advances to
make their lives easier. I’ve seen a fantastic project using an Alexa to reduce isolation for people on their own, or using an Alexa to remind people about when they have to take their meds.
“There’s the use of interactive doorbells for people who want to make sure they know who it is that’s coming to their door, and being in
charge themselves of letting people in, rather than what happens often now which is carers letting themselves in. Fridge alerts would alert either a care company or family member if they realise the fridge hadn’t been opened so the person hasn’t made themselves a cup of tea.”
Acoustic monitors will be trialled in two or three care homes, and have previously been shown to reduce falls and hospital admissions. The technology works by alerting care home staff when residents at risk of falls get up in the middle of the night, and means there is less demand for staff to check on people while they’re sleeping.
Cllr Holland added: “All of these things are low-level support needs but can be life changing, and can mean that people can stay independent in their own homes for much longer. One thing that sometimes gets raised with me is ‘I don’t want a robot looking after me, I want a person’.
“And that’s understandable.
“You want the job satisfaction for people who are working in care to be higher, because they’re doing the bits of the job that they want to do, which is engaging and communicating with the person they’re giving care to, not doing all the mundane things like checking whether medicines have been taken. So this isn’t about robots or tech replacing people. It’s about enhancing the role that people play.”