Telecare: Supporting Safety and Independence at Home

What is Telecare?

Telecare is the remote or enhanced delivery of health and social services to people in their own home by use of sensors, detector and alarms.  The equipment provides continuous, automatic and remote monitoring of care needs, emergencies and lifestyle changes.  It can trigger an alert for assistance or shut down equipment to prevent hazards.

Telecare equipment can be either:

• Equipment that needs to be activated by the user in an emergency - usually by push button, or pressing a trigger or pendant; or
• Equipment that monitors environmental aspects such as smoke, temperature and movement, and will activate themselves where changes are detectors.

How Telecare Works

Most telecare equipment links to a community alarm.  This is a small box, connected to a conventional phone socket and power point. The community alarm is usually programmed to dial an alarm monitoring centre when activated. 

Trained operators at the alarm monitoring centre will attempt to make contact with the user through the community alarm and respond - this might be reassurance, a call to a pre-agreed key holder or the emergency services.  The alarm monitoring centre is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

There is a small quarterly charge if the equipment is linked to the alarm monitoring centre.

The equipment can provide re-assurance and peace of mind to users and family or carers.

Additional sensors can be linked to the community alarm.  The sensors work remotely using radio wave signals and are wireless and are unobtrusive.  Sensors are programmed to alert automatically if a problem in the home is identified. Common Telecare sensors available are:

• Falls
• Chair and bed occupancy
• Property exit sensors
• Fire and smoke
• Extremes of temperature
• Carbon monoxide and gas
• Floods

Who Can Benefit from Telecare?

Telecare can help a wide range of people such as:

• Carers
• People with dementia or other cognitive impairment
• People at risk of falling
• People at risk from household dangers such as fire or flood
• People with learning difficulties
• People with physical or sensory impairments
• People wishing to return home quickly from hospital or residential care and those

Telecare equipment can also support anyone going through reablement. 

Reablement is intensive, short-term support to encourage and assist people to lead as fulfilling a life as they can, in the way they choose.

It promotes independence and is about working with the service user to build up the skills and confidence necessary to carry out daily living tasks they need to be as independent as possible.  These skills may have been lost because of poor health, disability or after a stay in hospital.

Finding out More

In Moray, Telecare is available to anyone with an assessed need.

If you think that you or someone you know would benefit from Telecare a request for an assessment can be made by contacting the (Adult Community Care) Access Care Team:

Telephone 01343 563999

Email: accesscareteam@moray.gov.uk

The client will then be visited by a Community Care Officer/Social Worker or Community Occupational Therapist to assess their needs.