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Camden is a council in North London with a population of 236,000. I hear that Camden has done good things on the telecare front…so why does their new one-minute advert for the telecare service concentrate on pendant alarms? Ah, the mysteries of councils’ marketing and communications departments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV434lorFCA
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Editor in Chief:
Donna Cusano (See articles)
Contributing Editors:
Charles Lowe (See articles)
Chrys Meewella (See articles)
Founder: Steve Hards
Telehealth and Telecare Aware posts pointers to a broad range of news items. Authors of those items often use terms 'telecare' and telehealth' in inventive and idiosyncratic ways. Telecare Aware's editors can generally live with that variation. However, when we use these terms we usually mean:
• Telecare: from simple personal alarms (AKA pendant/panic/medical/social alarms, PERS, and so on) through to smart homes that focus on alerts for risk including, for example: falls; smoke; changes in daily activity patterns and 'wandering'. Telecare may also be used to confirm that someone is safe and to prompt them to take medication. The alert generates an appropriate response to the situation allowing someone to live more independently and confidently in their own home for longer.
• Telehealth: as in remote vital signs monitoring. Vital signs of patients with long term conditions are measured daily by devices at home and the data sent to a monitoring centre for response by a nurse or doctor if they fall outside predetermined norms. Telehealth has been shown to replace routine trips for check-ups; to speed interventions when health deteriorates, and to reduce stress by educating patients about their condition.
Telecare Aware's editors concentrate on what we perceive to be significant events and technological and other developments in telecare and telehealth. We make no apology for being independent and opinionated or for trying to be interesting rather than comprehensive.
Camden Careline
Telecare as in the basic support and reassurance that is delivered via the ‘traditional dispersed alarms’ service model offer, still accounts for the vast majority of ‘Telecare’ service delivered throughout the country. For vast numbers of service users, families and their carers as well as the wider social care and health economy, this basic service offer continues to represents excellent value for money. ‘new Telecare’ is great for those that have that level of need, but this service should not be promoted over and above the basic service offer that continues to deliver ‘what it says on the tin’.
Pareto’s 20/80 rule is just as relevant in this sector as anywhere. 80% of Telecare support is still provided traditionally, delivering excellent value for all concerned, yet 80% of energies these days are expended on the 20% of ‘new Telecare technologies’
Now let me be clear, I am not a naysayer and of course I recognise the enormous impact and value that ‘new’ Telecare, for want of a better phrase, delivers. But let’s not forget the bread and butter folks. I’m pleased to see Camden has not… But then Camden never has been a place of conformity, as any regular visitor to Camden Market on a sunny weekend will attest to.
Camden’s You Tube Video
Just picked up on the video and Leslie’s comments, with which I agree completely. Pendant/wrist alarms ARE the main market, and too many vulnerable people and their relatives are still blissfully unaware that these services exist! Well done, Camden, for making the video in a simple, direct way, and trying to promote your service via YouTube – a free media to which millions have access. The basic alarm service is the gateway to promoting other telecare and telehealth services, once the need has been identified.