Published: 22 July 2005
Developing Telecare Services
A new guide on developing telecare services that is intended to help at least 160,000 vulnerable people live independently for longer has been launched by Care Services Minister Liam Byrne.
The policy guidance - Building Telecare in England - provides practical ideas for social service departments and their partners on how to use £80 million in new funding (available from April 2006) for innovative telecare services.
The guidance is accompanied by a range of implementation support materials developed by the new Change Agent Team (incorporating the Integrating Community Equipment Services) and the Housing LIN in the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP).
This includes:
- a cd-rom showcasing examples of Telecare entitled, Telecare: Living With Independence
- the Telecare Implementation Guide,
- a revised edition of the joint CAT/ICES Getting Started in Telecare pack, and
- a series of fact sheets (forthcoming) and further information material.
Liam Byrne MP said;
"After a life-time's work, the very least our older residents are entitled to is 'peace of mind'.
We know that 90% of older people want to live independently at home, and so do 35% of people living in residential homes.
Telecare is about using new technology to give people the peace of mind they need to live in their own home for as long as possible knowing that help is at hand if anything goes wrong.
But it's also about practical tools like automatically switching on the lights if you get up and night that make living in your own home easier.
Telecare is a key part of how we want to help ensure dignity for life for all older people.'
Better use of telecare could have an important impact on cutting the number of older people admitted to hospital in an emergency and the number who suffer falls each night.
Falls are a major cause of disability and the leading cause of mortality resulting from injury in people aged over 75 in the UK. One-third to one-half of people aged over 65 fall each year.
Furthermore, over 400,000 older people in England attend accident and emergency departments following an accident and up to 14,000 people die annually in the UK as a result of an osteoporotic hip fracture.
Falling, therefore, has an impact on quality of life, health and healthcare costs.
Through the
Preventative Technologies Grant, £80m will be allocated over two years from April 2006 as part of the Government's commitment to modernising and transforming care services provided by local authorities and the NHS.
It is also expected to contribute to the wider health, housing and social care policy agenda, including the delivering on National Service Frameworks (NSFs), the NHS system reform agenda and the new Vision for Adult Social Care.
Further information
Building telecare in England (scroll down for Business Case Models).
Integrating Community equipment Services - Telecare Implementation Guide and other documents forming the starter pack
Health and Social Care Change Agent Team (CAT)
To order your free cd-rom, Telecare: Living with Independence, email housinglin@eac.org.uk.
To find a business you can trust, click on the related categories below: