Innovation
walking, while limiting the use of night- time sleep-inducing medication. There is a strong focus on reducing or removing medications, with a medication rate of 1.4 pills per person each day, compared to an average of 10-12 pills for most people in Denmark with advanced dementia. The model of care is proving successful for staff and managers as well as residents, with minimal staff turnover and sickness levels of one per cent, compared to an average seven per cent.
Meanwhile, in Japan, the ‘Café of Mistaken Orders’ are cafés in Tokyo that hire people living with dementia to work once a month. Approximately 30 percent of the Japanese population of about 125.7 million is over 65. More than six million Japanese people are estimated to have dementia, with the number expected to grow as high as 7.3 million — or 1 in 5 people over the age of 65 — by 2025, according to the Health Ministry. Dementia cafes were introduced in Japan in 2017 and are popping up across the country. Their aim is to help dementia patients prolong their active lives, allowing them to interact with new people, be productive, and feel needed. In June 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida passed legislation to enact a slew of new programs and services to help those living with dementia, identifying it as an urgent national project.
A move towards technical innovation Here in the UK, the health and social care secretary has introduced The Digital Social Care Records programme, a target that, by March 2024, 80 per cent of all CQC registered care providers should have adopted a digital social care platform. It is hoped that these records will play an essential role in joining up health and social care services.
Care homes and hospitals have been
embracing technology and digital tools, understanding the benefits to the working environment, the level of care given and the benefits to the bottom line, for quite some time. Back in the late 1980s, nurse call systems using microprocessor technology began to replace the old bell and buzzer solutions. Intercall was at the forefront of these innovations and is still developing innovative solutions to support the care sector, continuously researching and developing products to help improve performance and make a positive change in the day-to-day running of care facilities and the lives of the residents that live within them.
January 2024
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
Data logging can empower care workers to focus on the individual needs of the resident Care home owners and managers have
been quick to see the benefits of integrating nurse call solutions with their existing systems. Secure data logging systems can automatically recall calls, alerts, and responses in real time, making light work of laborious manual time-consuming record keeping. Further, the digitised records are much more accurate, up-to- date, and readily available than manual records. Data is stored securely in a cloud service, enabling care managers to evaluate the number of calls, types of calls, and response times, helping them make informed management decisions. Data can be accessed remotely, perfect for multi- site management or flexible working and reports are created at the touch of a button. Harnessing digital care technology can help face-to-face care workers, taking away the need for hours of admin and form filling, freeing them up to spend more time with residents, giving more time to help alleviate the frustration and loneliness that is sometimes felt by many care home residents, especially those with dementia. Data logging can also empower care
workers to focus on the individual needs of the resident, for example by monitoring the levels of liquid ingested or the number of toilet visits, anticipating any complications such as dehydration or UTIs. This enables carers to be proactive rather than reactive
to a resident’s needs, in turn helping keep them away from costly hospital stays. Data can be an invaluable tool in creating person- centred care plans, adapting the care given to the individual to meet their specific needs and preferences. For specialised dementia care, thermal sensors are increasingly being installed in bedrooms to passively monitor the movement of residents prone to wandering, especially at night. The thermal sensor technology helps minimise trips and falls, which could be a hazard with older cabled systems, while the real time active monitoring allows staff and managers to establish the behaviour patterns of residents, logging and evidencing the ‘normal’ for each individual. Such patterns can be analysed to help with staffing levels, especially at night, while also flagging up behaviours that may be out of habit for that particular resident. The sensor can be set to trigger an alarm should the resident behave outside of their usual pattern, e.g., they usually visit the loo at 3am and are back in bed by 3:10am, but for some reason they do not return to bed within a set period, then an alarm would be triggered for staff to investigate.
Managers are also seeing the benefits of using care cards or tokens. Discreet and hygienic, staff are issued with a personalised card or token, which they use
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