Tunstall press release promoting its Learning Disabilities Technology Guide. Read more.
Archive for March, 2006
Telecare for people with learning disabilities
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006Self-install alert system (US)
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006See how a basic alarm system can be sold over the internet. See here.
Retiring to Spain?
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006Read these thought-provoking statistics on numbers of older people and carers in the province of Malaga. Also has interesting section at the end re Spain’s forthcoming equivalent of FACS. Read more.
6th Nordic Conference on eHealth and Telemedicine
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006The 6th Nordic Conference on eHealth and Telemedicine (NCeHT2006) will be held in Helsinki, Finland, on August 31 and September 1, 2006 with the theme: “From Tools to Services”. NCeHT2006 is the biannual scientific meeting of the Nordic Telemedicine Association. This year’s event will combine insights from the Nordic countries, who have been pioneers in the fields of telemedicine and eHealth, with the experiences and outlook of a wider European and international audience. Call for abstracts deadline: March 31 2006.
Alertacall challenges councils on PTG funding and target numbers
Friday, March 17th, 2006Alertacall Ltd. has written to directors of adult social care challenging them to increase the amount of PTG funding they have available to spend on people with high-level telecare needs from £500 to £960 — and to do so whilst meeting half their target number of people benefiting from telecare. The press release doesn’t detail how they are to do this, except to say that Alertacall can ‘help release PTG funding… by providing low-cost telecare packages to councils which they could give to people to self-install. In doing so, councils could easily meet half their telecare population target and still have up to £960 available to spend on the rest.’
Comment: This appears to be the most interesting development on the UK telecare scene for some time. The Telecare Policy Collaborative wrestled with, to no real conclusion, the issue of whether it would be possible to get telecare into the general population of older people and also to people with identified care needs. If part of councils’ targets can be met at low cost, allowing more to be spent on people with identified community care needs, this could be a win-win for everyone including users, carers, councils and the more ‘traditional’ telecare suppliers. The downside of this development would be if councils met all their target number with low-cost packages and ignored the opportunity to redesign their care services to incorporate telecare.
Dr. Technology will see you now
Friday, March 17th, 2006Neat little blog entry on telemedicine contains simple message and links to further information. Read more.
Local news examples
Friday, March 17th, 2006Happy 150th birthday: a new era looms for old age
Friday, March 17th, 2006Modern medicine is redefining old age and may soon allow people to live regularly beyond the current upper limit of 120 years, experts said on Wednesday. It used to be thought there was some inbuilt limit on lifespan, but a group of scientists meeting at Oxford University for a conference on life extension and enhancement consigned that idea to the dustbin.
Pennsylvania Senior Alert System Act
Monday, March 13th, 2006The proposed Pennsylvania Senior Alert System Act is under review in the state House. The measure would require guardians or health care providers to notify authorities of any missing person over age 18 with a condition that leaves him or her confused or dependent on others. Read more.
£3m waste of space
Monday, March 13th, 2006Cheshire West PCT spokeswoman said the Royal College of Physicians report on the way older people’s services should be provided, and the recent White Paper, ‘had to be taken into consideration before we settle on a preferred option for the long-term use of the new unit which delivers best value for patients and the public purse.’ Local newspaper report.