Falls Prevention System
Earlier this year the Thames Valley Berkshire Smart City Cluster launched a set of challenges which they wanted local businesses to tackle, and provided funding to bring these projects to life. Our bid led by Coraledge and in partnership with IoT Stars won the competition and we are busy working on our offering to help reduce the number of falls suffered by older people in West Berkshire. It is a fact of life that as we get into our senior years people tend to fall more often, and the injuries are more profound and recovery takes longer.
Falls take a dreadful toll on our confidence and ability to live happily with a high degree of independence. Quality of life suffers and often people find themselves needing more assistance and care provision. This in turn often means relatives working fewer hours so they can provide care, and/or an increase in demand for social care.
The cost of care provision to older people resulting from falls is more than £4Bn each year in the UK, so as well as quality of life issues there is a strong financial driver to help keep older people from falling.
We are very excited to be working with West Berks Council to trial our offering in 30 homes in West Berks. We will be installing a range of sensors in peoples homes in the next few weeks and the trial will run into 2020. The aim is to use the trial to gain insight into how our solution performs in real life, and to identify areas for improvement before we launch it to the market.