Since their beginning, care alarms, personal alarms, and medical alarms have all been fundamental to assisted living and elderly care.
The term care alarm or personal alarm is generally used to describe devices or systems – used by care receivers – with the capacity to alert response centres and carers in case the user experiences an emergency of some kind. These personal alarms often come as wearable devices, such as necklaces, bracelets, or wristbands, and are accessible and easily used by the care receiver who wears one.
Traditional care alarms are quite straightforward. However, with the availability of today’s innovations, this type of personal alarms and emergency systems have been developed further to address more complex and specific concerns. Therefore, modern care alarms can today provide both proactive and personalised care.
Forms of care alarms
To better understand how care alarms work, and how technological advancements have helped with the modernisation of elderly care, we’ve listed some of the types of care alarms as well as their general functions:
- Fall detectors – these are some of the most widely used devices and systems in elderly care. Fall detectors are self-explanatory – they can reliably detect falls, and alert response centres in case of an emergency. Some modern fall detectors can even alert carers in the event of a dangerous situation, allowing them to respond accordingly and completely prevent the fall.
- Tracking alarms – these alarms allow carers, and those integrated into the monitoring system, to reliably track the care receivers. The alarms are especially useful as they provide each care receiver with a reasonable level of independence without risking their safety.
- Phone-integrated alarms – today’s alarm systems are equipped with mobile apps which, when installed, allow you to receive, manage, and forward alarms seamlessly through your mobile phone, or even your computer.
- Monitored alarms – these alarms are integrated and connected to a 24-hour monitoring service, providing the user peace of mind, and certainty that the alarms will be attended to regardless of what time of day it is – or in the case of an emergency.
These are just some of the types and forms of care alarms available. As options in elderly care continuously develop, the types of alarms systems, and the solutions they offer will expand as well.
To understand proactive care and modern solutions
Just like personalised care, proactive care is another important aspect of healthcare, and is used to understand, explore, emphasise, and apply, as the needs of each client must be met. It’s a form of healthcare that focuses more on prevention, rather than a cure. Its aim is to prevent health concerns and manage conditions, and of course oversee the overall wellbeing of the care receiver.
Essentially, proactive care can be considered the opposite of reactive care, which deals with conditions only after they have already progressed into – sometimes – critical health concerns. The approach of reactive care can be quite costly, as patients and even providers often are blindsided by the onset of the critical health issue. With proactive care on the other hand, at-risk patients can be actively involved in the process, as they are made aware about their conditions as well as their treatment, prevention processes, and protocols.
Proactive care is about actively monitoring the conditions of care receivers, and to be able to prevent critical situations and emergencies. During that process, it’s most important to ensure that the clients are still able to enjoy a great degree of independence and dignity. In the long term a proactive care system will ultimately improve clients’ quality of life, which is also why the modern care alarm systems become much more useful than their traditional and outdated counterparts.
Today, there are systems and devices in elderly care that are very much beneficial and integral in providing proactive care. Modern fall detection radars are now available, which not only reliably detect falls, but prevent them as well, through data which has been securely and safely collected through a sensor.
Medication robots can proactively assist patients in sticking to their medication regimen, even if they’re not necessarily seen as care alarms as such. This is especially helpful as some care receiving clients tend to neglect their medication regimens once they start feeling better from their condition. Some clients also have trouble adhering to medication regimens for maintenance drugs, which are often essential in managing long-term or chronic conditions.
The integration of artificial intelligence in care alarms can be considered a form of proactive care, as these solutions are able to determine any unusual behaviour from the care receiving clients. By alerting the monitoring centres or carers, these resources are allowed to respond and address the issues before an emergency occurs.
As a result of genuine research and thorough case analysis, modern care alarms, in for example elderly care, are already deviating towards personalised care as today’s winning concept.
Implement proactive care solutions now with Skyresponse
The availability, adaptability and the proven benefits of taking a proactive approach in elderly care, fully outweighs unreliable, outdated and slow traditional solutions. This is most invaluable to care providers who now can implement and utilise modern care alarms and elderly care solutions, and therefore successfully and proactively meet the needs of care receiving clients.
Skyresponse provides a 100% cloud-based, future-proof and fully scalable platform that allows providers to seamlessly implement modern care alarms and solutions as they see fit, delivering quality care and helping in improving many situations for care receiving clients.
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