Britain has an ever increasing population of old age pensioners. The proportion of the UK population over 65 years old is now 15%, compared to 11% in 1951 and 5% in 1911. With improvements in national health care and diet, many now enjoy life into their eighties and nineties. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to look after an older relative in today’s fat-moving society. Nevertheless, anybody with an elderly relative certainly wants them to have a secure environment for them, in which they can enjoy their retirement without fear of injury.
To help ease the strain of looking after a vulnerable person, various systems have been implemented throughout the healthcare sector to give this exact peace of mind;
nurse call systems for example. These systems enable potentially vulnerable patients or home residents to contact carers or nurses from their bedside if they feel uncomfortable or be in need of assistance.
As simple as nurse call systems sound, they are actually invaluable pieces of technology and are a proven way to help available to patients – especially those with limited mobility or partial communication skills. They don’t even have to expensive or complicated; most are simple pull cords with a clear sign to indicate that it is used to call a nurse. Residents with more mobility might make use of wandering alarms instead, for instances when they feel uncomfortable or unsafe in certain areas of their residence. For the sake of the dignity and independence of elderly residence, a wandering alarm provides a way to ensure they have total freedom, but total protection should they need it.
Wandering alarms send silent signal to alert carers when the resident enters a more hazardous area, without causing a fuss.
Despite their use, some people don’t like having their movements monitored and feel that wandering alarms are an invasion of privacy. This must always be weighed against the potential threats to a person’s safety if they are left to wandering in places where they may endanger themselves with no way of calling for help. However, at the end of the day – the choice is with the resident. For those people who aren’t as keen on nurse call systems and wandering alarms, fall protection systems are of particular use. Like a wandering alarm, a fall protection system uses sensors to detect movements – a resident getting out of bed in the night, for example. Instead of calling for help or alerting carers, however; fall protection systems emit light to help protect the resident from bumps, trips or falls caused by walking around their room in the night.
Un-invasive and incredibly useful, fall protection systems are the simplest form of protection for the elderly or infirm, offering a degree of help and protection, with total freedom and privacy. Wandering alarms can be used both at home and in care homes, to help maintain independence but also provide alerts when help might be needed. Nurse call systems can be fully customised to provide a dignified call service, including silent alarms and movement monitoring. Each piece of protection technology aims to give the maximum amount of protection whilst allowing independence and dignity for the user.
