We have made a few changes to the structure of our main website to make it easier to find content by navigation, and added a ‘What is Telecare?’ page under ‘Telecare for you’.
If you have added some particular pages to your Favorites list, they should still work, but you might want to check.
Tunstall press release promoting its Learning Disabilities Technology Guide. Read more.
Alertacall 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.
Great local good news story. Read more.
Multi-million pound support package for older people, disabled people and their carers announced. Read more.
Interesting take by Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, author of ‘The Tyranny of Health: Doctors and the Regulation of Lifestyle’ on the Government White Paper ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Choice’. Read more.
You and Yours didn’t run the story yesterday as planned. We will let you know when they do.
The EasyLiving scheme has apartment properties designed specifically for older people who want an easily managed property and an independent lifestyle, together with the benefit of 24-hour on-site support. Practical facilities are provided, such as a restaurant and laundry, buggy store, guest room and lounge area. In addition, each scheme will have a unique design feature which can vary from a cinema, a cyber-café or a bowling green to an on-site shop or bar. Read more.
Professor James Barlow (see our ‘About us’ page) will be talking about telecare on Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ consumer affairs programme on Monday 6 March, 12-1pm.
If you miss it or are outside of the UK you can hear it later from the BBC website. Look for the listen again link.
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