NHS Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire County Council have teamed up to create a strategy designed to keep mainly elderly people living healthily in their homes for longer.
More than £2 million has been directed from the county's Health and Wellbeing Fund to help roll out health monitoring equipment and security systems to ensure this group of people are kept safe.
In addition NHS and social services employees say they will work closer together to ensure a vulnerable person's health and social needs are both being met.
Lincolnshire's health and wellbeing board says it is crucial services can be put in place quickly for situation's such as an elderly person's carer being taken ill or moving away leaving them unsupported at home.
It says there should also be a greater emphasis on monitoring people's long-term health conditions such as diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the home to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
Dr Martin McShane, director of strategic planning and health outcomes at NHS Lincolnshire, said Telehealth technologies, linked to the internet, could be installed in a COPD patient's home to measure their oxygen levels several times a day.
Dr McShane said: "If their oxygen level drops below a certain level then one of our people can phone up and provide help and advice.
"Or they can monitor the condition themselves and become expert at managing their condition and the medication needed.
"Some people are good at managing a condition themselves and others need more reassurance such as knowing someone can ring from the district nursing service.
"A great challenge faces our health and social care services with an increasing elderly population in the county and many people living with long-term conditions.
"These are conditions that cannot be cured but a person's quality of life can be maintained if their condition is well managed."
Martin Wilson, head of health and wellbeing at Lincolnshire County Council, said Telecare systems could be installed into the homes of vulnerable people.
For example, an elderly person at risk from falling can have sensors installed in their home to alert the service should they fall to the ground suddenly.
Mr Wilson said: "A lot of it is about giving people the confidence to stay in their home."
Julie Fisher, a community care officer for Lincolnshire County Council, said she was already witnessing the benefits of Telecare technology.
She said: "We have an elderly lady with early dementia who was cared for by her daughter who lived in the same village.
"But sadly her daughter died quite suddenly and we didn't know whether the lady was safe in her house.
"So we introduced some monitoring equipment to check whether she was wandering around at night and just to check whether she was safe living alone."
---
Quelle/Source: Theis is Lincolnshire, 04.08.2010
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
