Graham finds out about Telecare

It was really good to meet Graham Skidmore and his Executive Assistant, Rosie, earlier this week.

Graham is Service Quality Director for Thera East and is taking part in the Lived Experience pilot, which aims to fulfil the need for wider engagement between service users and the sector and their communities. Graham is keen to extend his role by bringing new experiences to his job that could further help the people Thera supports. As he is interested in the use of assistive technology I arranged for him and Rosie to visit Icom’s telesupport demo suite to see some of their equipment in action.

Graham and Rosie in the demo suite

Kevin and Paul from Icom showed some of the detector sensors, such as epilepsy, falls and extreme temperature. They also talked about how they have developed some more innovative pieces of equipment not usually seen elsewhere such as a cotton enuresis sheet which is better to sleep on than the old style plastic sheets, a flood detector which detects that a flood is likely to occur and can cut off the supply before it happens rather than afterwards and also infrared beams which detect movement between two spaces.

Graham was very interested in the biometric locks which can be of real assistance to people who have difficulty using keys or often forget their keys. Icom even came up with a solution when Graham asked what someone without hands could use!

Graham trying out the biometric lock

Kevin also explained about their range of telehealth equipment which can help people manage and monitor their own health conditions and feed-back information to their health care professional remotely.

Graham looking at some of the telehealth equipment

Graham was really interested in how the equipment can help people to remain safe and become more independent in their own homes. We talked about how important it is for support staff to be properly trained and so that they see the equipment as helping them to provide better support rather than fearing the equipment. Graham is going to share his experience with others at Thera so they can think about how technology can assist the people they support.

A huge thank you to Kevin and Paul at Icom for their time and allowing us access to their demo suite.

Please email me: contactclaire@clairehall.com if you would like to visit Icom’s demo suite or would like further information about assistive technology assessments and training.