Staffordshire County Council was an early adopter of telecare, amongst the first to experiment with passive sensors to remind or protect people with dementia. Working with its social alarm control centres, telecare became an integral part of its "Stay at Home" scheme for people with dementia.

Older Persons’ Team Leader, Jim Ellam, was working with Barbara, a service user with dementia who was reportedly going out at night. Jim was planning to install an exit sensor but instead, he decided to try the Just Checking system. He found that the system gave him a much more comprehensive "picture" of Barbara’s patterns of activity in the house during both the day and night, and this enabled Jim, together with Barbara’s family, who could also look at the charts, to plan and organise the level of support she needed.

Staffordshire then equipped each of its "Reablement" teams with Just Checking. These intermediate care teams, which include social workers, occupational therapists and home care assessors, work for a concentrated 6 week period following a spell in hospital or problems at home, to help rebuild skills and confidence and regain independence. Reablement is carried out at home if possible, and this is particularly important for people with dementia, where familiar surroundings can help to orientate and provide cues for daily activities. Just Checking is used to check that the level of support is right, and to see how the service user is acting when care staff are not at the house. It gives the team (and the family) the confidence to try moving the person back home, and it allows staff to gauge the effect of gradually reducing services as the person is "reabled".

The reablement teams install and move the Just Checking systems themselves. The radio based sensors are easy to use, and installation takes only 15 minutes. The highly portable systems have each been reused many times.

Delighted with the experience of the reablement teams, Staffordshire rolled out Just Checking to its social care teams. Just Checking has worked with the authority to raise awareness amongst staff and to run training sessions in using the technology within a package of care. Assistive technology is an integral part of the Staffordshire’s "Changing Lives" vision for adult social care which promotes independence, inclusion and well-being for older and disabled residents.

 "Sharing the Just Checking information with the family helps to secure the family’s confidence in the care package." 

Jim Ellam, Older Persons’ Team Manager

 

Financials

Cost of using Just Checking throughout the 6-week Reablement period = £74.00 (based on 3-year package).

This equates to 5 hours of home care. The cost of using Just Checking is recuperated if the number of hours of home care is reduced by 5 hours during the 6-week period – a reduction of less than 1 hour of home care a week.

At the end of the reablement period, the information from the Just Checking system gives the team confidence to specify the minimum on-going support. If home care could on average be ½ hour a day less than would have been the case without the system, the cost saving would be 3.5 hours per week x £14.50 (Average hourly cost of home care Source: NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre. Personal Social Services Expenditure and Unit Costs 2005-2006, NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (2007)
= £50.75 per week
= £2,639 per annum, per service user

In a year each Just Checking system has been used with 8 service users. The authority’s five reablement teams have each been equipped with 2 systems, which have been in constant use.

If the annual cost saving of £2,639 applied to only half of the service users, the overall cost saving amongst the 5 reablement teams is £105,560

 

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