Delegates at a recent seminar organised by the charity PhoneAbility at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in London called for a “national coherent plan” for fully integrated systems and services which meet the needs of disabled and older people.
They were told that, although many excellent pilot schemes for providing various components of “smart” living systems and services existed, there was “a serious lack of an overall plan”. Without such a plan the current “fragmentary situation” would worsen for the 10 million Britons over 65 (of whom five million are disabled), and for the seven million disabled people of working age. The seminar, “Smart Living – the way forward for disabled and older people”, heard that telemedicine and telecare posed special problems, in that the many different professions running services needed appropriate back office systems based on common ethical and privacy standards, while the services must be fully integrated with other “smart living” systems. Photo shows a wheelchair lift at the Osborne Affordable House at the BRE Innovation Park, Watford.
