4 Reflections On Technology In Care: The Past, Present And The Exciting Future
By Laurence Geller CBE
We stand at a crossroads for the future of care. The sector has been in the spotlight much over the last few years, and not often for positive reasons. Social care has become an increasingly political subject, and there is much discussion around the sector, pertaining to Covid rules, funding, staffing levels, and its uncertain future.
One certainty is that our people are our most important asset. It is they who set the tone and direction of the industry and are the beating pulse of its workings. However, they have seen great challenges over the past 2 years, and as a result, we need to look to new ways to protect, support and empower them.
As we look at the next 5, and 10 years for the industry, we should look to face the problems of the sector head-on. Whilst funding and policy are integral parts of the solution, we must also look to generate solutions from within the industry itself. Increasingly, technology has become an accessible and widespread tool in care, and something that should be embraced as part of care’s future.
1. Monitoring
Over the past few years, staff across the industry have provided outstanding care, amidst highly challenging circumstances. However, as demand for care increases, the pressure on staff does too. We need to look to means to support staff in their work, and to enable them to focus on delivering hands on, high-quality, human care.
New technology can allow for remote monitoring, analysis and diagnosis of key needs. Audible cues can detect signs and symptoms of a possible fall, and mattress management technology can pick up possible incontinence. AI-enabled ‘pain-check’ facial analysis can assist in analysing patient condition and comfort. These tools can help ease the workload of staff, and provide them with digestible and accessible real-time information, allowing them to focus on what matters most.
2. Safety & Administration
The safety of our patients must be paramount, and technology is certainly a great tool to aid that. Electronic patient care records are becoming more commonplace in healthcare settings, and should be embraced in care settings too. Software can monitor medication dosing, help track a patient’s condition over time, and flag things requiring immediate attention.
Digitally enabled mattresses can detect and alert to changes in physiology, such as abnormal vital signs. These technologies can also allow for better continuation of care, throughout the care pathways, ensuring that a patient is not a nameless, folded sheet of paper, but instead a holistic individual with records to match.
3. Therapy
Care needs are becoming both more complex, and more understood. Technology can, and has, enabled a breadth of new therapies for some of the more complex conditions. For those suffering with dementia, it has unlocked a new realm of possibility in memory care, such as the use of virtual reality, sensory enhancement chambers and movement/motion therapy chairs. Circadian rhythmic lighting systems can reduce circadian dysfunction (a common problem for those living in care homes, particularly those with degenerative brain diseases). We have endless opportunities, now, and in the future, to provide the best possible care for those that need it most.
4. Dignity
Arguably, dignity is one of the most important, and most overlooked aspects in developing the future of the care industry. Dignity in care goes beyond how we direct interactions with patients – but must be at the core of their experience, through every aspect of their day-to-day. Technology, when used correctly, is a greater enabler of a proud, holistic patient care experience. Direct care alarms, linking individual residents to portable devices held by staff can make alerts discreet. Applications can keep family members abreast of a resident’s routine and day from afar. Medication can be dispensed personally, and in privacy. All these developments allow ‘patients’ to reclaim their sense of ‘person’ and to have their care be a subtle addition, as opposed to an overt fact.
Times are changing, and we as a sector must change with them. Care has sat in the shadows for too, and it is time, with the help of the blossoming care technology field, to bring it to the light.
About the author
Laurence Geller CBE is one of the leading real estate investors in the world, specialising in the luxury end of hospitality. He is currently founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of both Geller Capital Partners and Innovative Aged Care, the UK’s pioneer in high-end dementia care residential facilities that operate under the Loveday & Co brand name. Loveday is the UK’s first dedicated specialist provider of dementia care for high-net-worth individuals.
Both of Laurence’s parents suffered from dementia – he saw first-hand the debilitating effects of the disease on the individual, as well as the impact on families who care for and support their loved ones. He currently serves as a Global Business Ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society and in 2018 donated £1m to University West London to establish the Institute for Ageing and Memory.
Laurence is an advisor to Nigel Huddleston MP, Minister for Sport at DCMS, on concussion in sport, and is the founder and chairman of Love of the Game, a charity which seeks to reduce concussion-related issues arising from contact and non-contact sports.
He is funding a study into vascular repair and regeneration to lessen the chances of rugby players suffering from dementia in later life.
Laurence is a respected philanthropist and raises significant sums for a variety of causes which include dementia training, education and care, children’s health, child poverty, education in general with the Royal Hospital Chelsea, UK military supporting institutions, UNICEF as well
