Northamptonshire Safe at Home Project

The project explores the use of telecare in the homes of people with dementia in Northamptonshire, with the aim of preventing admission into hospital or residential care, supporting carers, promoting independence and reducing perceived and actual risks. Telecare is installed following a careful assessment of need. The project is currently actively exploring ways of achieving a transition from project to service by mainstreaming its practice. A recently published study compared results from the project in Northamptonshire with a control group from Essex.

Results

The technology was found to be very reliable: Social and environmental factors were just as important in ensuring acceptance of technology, and its effective use as the reliability of the technology itself.
Nearly 50% of carers felt the project had increased the confidence of the user.
People from the comparator group left the community sooner and in greater numbers: they were 4 times more likely to leave the community than Safe at Home Service users.
A carer stress scale was created and in all but one of the scored items the scale score was lower (i.e. the relative or carer was less stressed) after the project had provided technology.
The project was extremely cost effective as fewer people spent less time in hospital, residential or nursing care - the net equivalent saving over 21 months was £1,504,773.

Read the full Case Study (PDF)

Return to Case Studies