The most common causes of falls in the elderly include poor eyesight and hearing, weak muscles, slow reflexes, low blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, arthritis, and depression. Furthermore, some medications may cause dizziness or confusion which increase an elderly person’s risk of falling.
More than one in four people aged 65 or older fall each year. In addition to the risk of injury, falls can cause an elder person to develop an ongoing fear of falling. This fear can cause them to avoid activity, making their muscles weak, thus further increasing their risk of falling.
Through understanding the causes of falls, social care providers can be better placed to conduct a fall risk assessment and implement appropriate fall prevention strategies.
While falls can affect people of all ages, they are a particular concern for the elderly. This article will focus on the causes of elderly falls and conclude with a look at how technology enabled care (TEC) can reduce the risk of falls.
Housing Events in 2024 offer a wide range of insights into how key stakeholders can better tackle housing challenges across the country, and Housing 2024 was no different.
With co-production being one of the key messages from Housing 2024, it is clear that improvements to housing problems will only improve when stakeholders in the housing sector communicate with each other and individuals to concentrate on what matters to them.
Whether it’s preventing homelessness, creating net zero homes, better managing ageing populations, making housing more accessible, or supporting independent living, providing support that the individual wants, needs, and requires is vital.
So what were the key takeaways from Housing 24 and what are the next steps to integrate housing, health, and social care?
This article will review some of the key insights and next steps in providing and creating virtual homes that cater to every individual need by continuously involving them in every housing decision being made.
Insight data is valuable across all industries. Turning data into insight and then into action enables industries to drive better outcomes and results, and actionable health and social care insights are no different.
Having actionable health and social care insights are vital to transforming care deliveries from reactive to proactive and preventative. Here better outcomes-focused care can be delivered concentrating on what matters to the individual.
But what are actionable insights? And how can care providers, turn data into actionable insights to deliver better-coordinated care?
At Access Technology Enabled Care we know that an estimated 2 million users have either a telecare or a technology enabled care device and that this number will continue to rise as more individuals live with more than one long-term condition.
We know and understand the increased pressure to reach the rising demand, so we want to make it easier to capture all data insights in one place to enable better data-driven decisions before something more critical takes place, to increase independence, provide reassurance, and most importantly improve quality of life.
By the end of this article, you will know and understand all there is to know about capturing, monitoring, and utilising actionable insights to improve care outcomes and how at Access Technology Enabled Care we put the individual at the heart of every decision to ensure a better quality of life.
A fall risk assessment should be considered for anyone who is elderly or suffering from a disability. The risk assessment is conducted by a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, or exercise therapist, and involves using a risk assessment tool that considers a person’s individual risk factors.
While fall risk assessments tend to be focused on the elderly, falls can affect all age groups including the young and middle-aged. Irrespective of age, falls can lead to injury and loss of confidence, to the detriment of a person’s wellbeing, confidence, and quality of life.
In this article we will explain what falls risk assessments involve, compare different types of falls risk assessments, and examine the best falls risk assessment tools. Finally we will have a look at how technology enabled care (TEC) can offer a solution for people assessed as having a high falls risk.
Last week we had the pleasure of attending the Digital Healthcare Show at the Excel, London. We met hundreds of individuals as passionate about the healthcare sector as we are, and we also had the chance to attend some fascinating, insightful talks from industry pioneers who have spent their fair share of time on the frontlines.
Fall prevention is best tackled with a multifaceted approach. This includes traditional methods such as promoting healthy lifestyles, strengthening family and social networks, and facilitating functional exercise programmes. Looking forward, fall detection technology is progressing rapidly and offers new and innovative devices for preventing falls.
While falls are a major concern for the elderly, they can affect people of all ages. There are a number of risk factors that make falls more likely. These include underlying medical conditions, side effects of medication, poor mobility, low blood pressure, and dehydration.
But are falls preventable?
The answer is a resounding yes. Falls are not a normal part of ageing, and they can be prevented using interventions that are proven and evidence based. A study of randomised trials in fall prevention found a variety of effective interventions including strength training, Tai Chi, home modification, and withdrawal of psychotropic medications.
This article discusses the most effective strategies regarding falls and fall prevention and concludes with a look at the latest fall prevention solutions, including technology enabled care (TEC).
Reducing hospital admissions and the dependency on primary, secondary, and emergency care is a huge priority for health and social care professionals. Many organisations, hospitals, and NHS Trusts are looking to find new ways to reduce admissions as well as reduce re-admission after discharge.
With over 500,000 patients experiencing emergency admissions last year and over 42,000 of them waiting over 12 hours to be admitted, more action is needed to find better methods to prevent hospital admissions and re-admissions, including unnecessary admissions.
Shifting from reactive care models to preventative ones is one method that is being used more frequently. Many different preventative and early intervention methods can be used, but which are the most effective?
At The Access Group, we want to help local authorities, primary care, secondary care, and NHS Trusts to reduce the increasing demand by using effective population health management to reduce health inequalities and deliver more targeted support for at-risk patients of continuous re-admission.
This article will review why admissions are on the rise and the impact this has on the individual as well as the wider health and social care market. Ways to prevent hospital admissions will also be discussed to help you deliver better coordinated, person-centred, and preventative care that always concentrates on the individual.
Virtual wards are the future of healthcare, designed to allow for greater patient independence, a faster discharge, and to help avoid any health deterioration due to an extended stay on a hospital ward.
With modern medicine improving life expectancy, we're ourselves part of an ageing population; witnessing in real-time how science is combating issues like cancer, dementia, heart disease, and so much more. This means more demand for healthcare than ever.
Hospitals have a myriad of difficulties to overcome, but the virtual ward is now more than a concept. Case studies of NHS virtual wards have shown they help to relieve demand for hospital beds, reduce overcrowding, and improve the overall patient experience.
In this article we answer what is a virtual ward, what is a ward, and how a virtual hospital ward differs from the traditional approach. We also expand upon NHS virtual wards and virtual ward pathways; how do they fit into the existing care flow from diagnosis to treatment?
Hospital discharge delays are becoming a major issue for patients, their families, hospitals, and local authorities. To combat these ever-growing impacts caused by delayed hospital discharges, the Government has announced a £250 million discharge fund.
Like many local authorities, this discharge fund is probably on your mind. You may be struggling to decide how best to utilise the fund so your local community can fully benefit from it. Or you might want to see what other local authorities are currently doing to reduce hospital discharge delays for inspiration?
If that’s you, then by the end of this article you will have all the answers to everything relating to delayed hospital discharges.
At The Access Group, we know the challenges local authorities face to keep up with the demand and capacity to accommodate all discharge plans as they come through. We know ideally the best place for patients to continue recovering is in their own homes, however, due to staffing capacities this is not always the case.
We provide a plethora of digital tools and solutions that can help your local authority manage caseloads more efficiently and help you be better prepared for the demand now and in the future, without inhibiting the quality of care your local authority delivers.
This article will review the hospital discharge process, the causes of hospital discharge delays, and how that impacts the patient, the community, hospitals, and your local area. We also explain in depth the terms of the Government’s discharge fund and what that means for local authorities, the reactions to this discharge fund, and what are the best ways to utilise the funding to reduce these delays to improve patient outcomes further.
Innovation in home care can’t solve every challenge domiciliary care providers face. If you are a care provider in the UK, you probably feel extremely held back by the low price paid for care and the impact this has on staffing, your capacity and even care quality.
That said, the fact you have found yourself here shows you want to succeed despite these challenges, to utilise the best new innovative ideas, approaches and technologies, to help improve care quality and safety, in an efficient and sensible way.
Our sector is not necessarily the quickest to utilise these innovations. Probably in no small part due to the financial pressures faced and the disparate ways in which innovation is shared across the UK’s care networks, if at all.
At The Access Group we provide a complete suite of home care software to tens of thousands of home care services across the UK, through our relationships with clients and partners like the Home Care Association, National Care Forum and others, we stay ‘plugged in’ to how home care providers are innovating.
So, while I can’t help you getting a better rate for care services, I can show you some of the best examples of innovative home care and how they could help you and your care services.
In this article I will highlight some key examples of innovation in home care, including self-managing teams, artificial intelligence, next generation telecare and robotics.
After reading it, you should have a selection of practical approaches and technology that you can consider using in your own care services, and which you should avoid.
