The role of Smart Homes to enhance independent living
Since 2000 two events have contributed to an explosion in technology innovation. Firstly, smartphone ownership has grown exponentially, reaching almost half of the world’s 7.8 billion people. Secondly, the launch of Apple’s App Store in 2008 gave independent software developers access to tools to create new products, and a marketplace in which to monetise them.
The result has been an explosion in health and care technology products, available to a wider audience and at lower cost. It has shifted power away from large corporate ‘point solutions’ towards locally-developed digital products available on personal devices. It has also changed people’s expectations, making technology more accessible.
In 2020 the Apple and Android app stores listed over 300,000 health and care related apps. Mental health and well-being apps increased massively during lockdown, but even before the pandemic were the fastest-growing segment.
At the same time that software development has expanded rapidly, investment in UK telecoms infrastructure (such as fibre optic broadband and 5G) has ensured that the underlying infrastructure is in place to support our increasing appetite for data-hungry technology.
Smartphone ownership now reaches half of the world’s 7.8 billion people
Social Care has been a lower funding priority than the NHS for many years. It has lacked the national mindshare and respect afforded to the NHS. Social Care budgets will remain constrained, even after witnessing the importance of Social Care during Covid. The Local Government Association estimates a £5Bn funding gap in Social Care in 2020
One of the key aims of Social Care in the UK is to support people with disabilities to live independently.
The main focus tends to be on the elderly. A smaller and equally important group is adults with learning disabilities. There are 250,000 people diagnosed with severe learning disabilities in the UK. This number is increasing at about 4% per year. A third (35%) of the national Adult Social Care budget is allocated to people with learning disabilities. It is the fastest growing element of council budgets.
Whilst demand-side budgets are under increasing pressure, supply-side care costs are also increasing. The introduction of the National Living Wage had a major impact on care costs, in what has traditionally been one of the lowest paid sectors. In 2019 research showed 59% of care providers in the learning disabilities sector had begun to hand back contracts to local authorities due to cost increases and non-viability of contracts.
The combination of demand and supply pressures, coupled with the inevitable Covid fall out is a ‘perfect storm’ for Social Care. It is a good time to re-assess how technology could be deployed to help people live more independently.
The benefits of Smart Home technology
Every Care Provider will confirm that technology is not in itself a silver bullet, but that it does have enormous value when when deployed as part of a person-centred support plan.
In order to take advantage of technology, new and adapted homes should be ‘future-proofed’. This does not mean pre-installation of specific point solutions. It means homes are ‘enabled’ to allow for any technology product to be installed quickly and easily at any point in the future.
Deploying technologies within a ‘Smart Home’ environment is beneficial for at least three groups:
Tenants
Adults with learning disabilities and/or autism require time to absorb the idea of a house move. Using a digital data model of the building (a BIM – Building Information Model) the building can be rendered virtually, allowing prospective tenants to ‘walk through’ rooms and spaces before the building is actually completed. This helps to reduce tenant anxiety.
Tenants within this group prefer simple clear controls. Tablet devices are ideal as a ‘hub’ to present a selection of home controls in one place. Home controls might focus on control over sensory stimulus; lighting, noise, and temperature.
‘Technology enabled’ homes allow people with care and support needs to take full advantage of emerging and future technologies
For those who can speak and hear clearly, voice-activated devices (such as Amazon’s Echo or Google’s Assistant) are helpful. They are ‘plug and play’ and offer simple voice control over connected devices in the home. They also offer easy access to shopping, education and entertainment.
Localised hubs, whether tablet or voice activated can connect to personal devices. These may include ‘wearables’ (for health, fitness, or monitoring) or home-based sensors. Friends, families and care staff are able to receive data sent from the devices (with tenant consent).
Within the Smart Home model, simple device and data connectivity are key. With so much personal data flowing through the local ‘network’, a critical consideration is security, privacy and permissions management (who a tenant decides to share his/her data with).
Care Providers
A digitally-enabled environment is helpful for Care and Support Providers.
Online care and support may include; a personalised care and support dashboard, speech to text note-taking, direct and group messaging/chat, personal goal-setting, timeline planning and calendars, reminders and notifications, stored assessments, photos, and voice/video communications, etc.
With tenant permissions it’s also possible to connect monitoring devices, which alert care and support staff to unexpected or potentially dangerous events. Monitoring devices can help waking or sleeping night care staff to provide more effective support.
Registered Providers
A key issue for Registered Providers (RPs) is the on-going maintenance and operation of buildings.
BIM technology captures building energy usage in real time, reporting on sustainability and social impact, but also to manage monthly bills for the tenants and operator.
A building with embedded sensors can monitor for hazardous events and alert the RP early when issues are emerging. This may include flooding, leaks, fire, electricity outages, and failures in equipment such as boilers or solar panels.
Connecting security and access cameras enables the RP to manage security of the building, grounds and tenants. Automated pattern-recognition software identifies potential issue events from this connected data stream.
Looking forward…It’s difficult to predict what technology will be available next year. Looking ahead 10 years or so (a period shorter than an average RP lease) is virtually impossible.
That’s why ‘smart homes’ that can accommodate future developments are essential for care and support providers , RPs and Accommodation Commissioners. They’re also critical for tenants, allowing individuals to take advantage of future innovations that will improve independent living and enhance quality of life.
Is the future one in which ‘Care bots’ remind you when to take medicines, monitor the home, and request human support/care?
There are plenty of exciting emerging technology trends in Social Care and Smart Homes. Just a few examples are:
- Personal ‘care bots’ – In Japan ‘care bots’ already help people to live independently. They remind people when to take medicines, monitor the home, and request human support/care when required. Early work is taking place to understnd how care bots can provide companionship and alleviate loneliness. UK researchers have developed a robot capable of identifying human emotions and helping people on the autistic spectrum to read emotion and interpret behaviour
- Self-optimisation of buildings and homes – Real-time data captures building use and state, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) acts on the data to optimise buildings for sustainability or longevity
- Connected homes and buildings – Some accommodation commissioners promote a ‘core and cluster’ model where a larger central building (‘core’) supports and sustains a network of smaller local homes (‘cluster’). Building and tenant data for the entire network can be monitored centrally. A central care and support dashboard supports increased operational efficiency across multiple locations
Conclusions
- Tenants and care providers are already benefiting from assistive technology and there is potential for greater benefit in future
- Technology-related products are evolving so quickly it’s difficult to predict what products will emerge in the future
- New ‘humanist’ technologies are emerging that could provide companionship and personal guidance for tenants. These should complement human care and support, not replace it
- New and adapted homes for adults with care and support needs must be’technology enabled’ so new emerging technology can be exploited in future
- Future opportunities exist to improve maintenance operations and support AI-based self-optimisation of buildings
- Connected homes can support commissioning models (eg core and cluster) more effectively
- Privacy, security, and sharing of data will become a key area of concern