FURNITURE, INTERIORS & DESIGN Design & Function
Roeland Pelgrims, Co-Founder and CEO of Belgian tech scale-up Nobi, explains why he believes elderly people are deserving of great design, and why outstanding care doesn’t have to come at the cost of a beautiful interior.
The world of elderly care is complex there are a lot of things to consider. When safety and security are the top priorities, design oſten falls far down the list. However, this is a mistake, and one that comes at the cost of people’s wellbeing and potentially their lives.
Scientists have proven that surrounding patients, and the residents of longer-term care facilities, with good lighting, beautiful design and a connection to nature will speed their recovery, and dramatically improve their quality of life. But still, we see assistive technology that is clinical, ugly and stigmatising. Agetech tends to categorise those in assisted living facilities as one homogenous group, and to view this group purely as passive receivers of care. But that is not how we see them, and for their mental and physical wellbeing it is imperative that this is not how they see themselves.
The other great hurdle with assistive technology is adoption among staff. If the technology is not only ugly and cumbersome, but unintuitive to use, or inefficient, then staff will not want to use it. Agetech providers must do better and provide more options for intuitive, seamless technology that gives carers more time to focus on person-centred care.
This is what we are working toward with the Nobi smart lights. Every second, a person over 65 falls somewhere in the world; every 11 seconds, a person over 65 is admitted to the A&E due to a fall; and every 19 minutes, a person over 65 dies because of a fall. These facts cannot be ignored and we know that effective fall prevention technology has the potential to improve lives and patient outcomes, and importantly allow the care sector to better support the NHS and broader healthcare services by keeping people out of hospital.
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What we have developed is a beautifully designed, AI driven light that will monitor the room and learn the movement pattern of the resident, meaning that it can detect 100% of falls and raise the alarm immediately, and alert care givers to underlying conditions before they become a real problem. The lights blend seamlessly into a bedroom, living room or even bathroom, and the level of use will be completely different for each resident.
We believe that assistive technology should be invisible until it is needed. So, for some these lights will be a precaution, allowing peace of mind for the resident and their family, preserving their ability to live independently for as long as possible. For others, they will be more heavily used. If a resident is a frequent faller, or living with dementia, the lamps can isolate the cause of falls, not only ensuring the resident is reached quickly in the event of a fall, but capturing the 15 seconds before and aſter, which means that care staff can make changes to prevent the fall being repeated. In this way, Hartland House in Milnthorpe has reduced the number of falls in the care home by 84%.
The natural next step for technology integration is to start working with architects, developers and designers to bring technological function and optimum room layout to the fore in the very early stages. Bringing beautifully designed technology in from the very start, rather than as an unwelcome clinical add-on, will ensure high levels of adoption, and better, more effective care for our ageing population.
www.nobi.life/en_GB
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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