Today's advanced Teleassistance

Source:  ATTENTIANET project (eTEN)           
( http://www.attentianet.eu/index.html )

Demographic changes are occurring in Europe, people are living longer, it's a process known as population ageing. A key concern of an ageing population is the welfare of the increasing numbers of elderly living alone in their homes. The Teleassistance concept had initiated as ‘home teleassistance' to provide on-demand, cost-effective, efficient and high quality health care to the home.

Governments prediction that the proportion of elder people rise from the current 16.2 per cent to 20 per cent in 2010. By 2050, if current trends continue, Europe will have a problem with old people. Nowadays, the vast majority of old people live with family or in their own home. But, as living habits change and young working couples move away from home earlier, an increasing proportion of the elderly are living alone. As a result, residential care for the elderly is growing in popularity and in more cases, this may involve the elderly having to sell their home to pay for their own care

An alternative option is to provide health care in the homes of the elderly. This is the ADVANCED TELEASSISTANCE that is beginning to provide efficient health care at a lower cost. Instead of providing day-to-day care, the ‘home teleassistance' strategy means that health care arrives quickly at the home whenever the patient requires it. And this allow elderly people to continue living independently in their preferred environment with the benefits from essential care and security. It doesn't only targets the needs of the individual elderly person, it also helps their families and caretakers, rather than the health care institutions. Today, all this is possible with providing innovative technology solutions.

The ADVANCED TELEASSISTANCE covers fields to improve access to social, medical and emergency services, and to facilitate social contacts. ADVANCED TELEASSISTANCE provides personal attention not only for elderly, also for disabled, people who live alone, or high-risk patients. Assistance is so easy as to push of a button. A permanent service center is 24hours 7days a week, 365days a year pending for requirements of the user that has access to them with a ‘hands free' communication.

The ADVANCED TELEASSISTANCE provides two added usefull services to the typical Teleassistance:

- Mobility

When elderly people go outside, they must have the same assistance than in home. They only need to push of a button. This health-care initiative also provides security from all at-risk individuals (e.g. the elderly madness, victims of violence etc.) So, the user is protected and safe during their daily activities.

Even more, by the GSM technology, the permanent service center take the information of the user's exact location. Once the user's position has been determined, the permanent service center can work with other information, such as speed, bearing, track, distance moved, distance to destination (where stated), time of day at that location etc.

- Video Conference 

The project inlcudes video conferencing systems, which have to be built as computers but with a user control of a video conference limited with a reduced menu. It means that the permanent service center is called as for a normal telephone conversation but that it presents himself or herself this time with the picture and the sound. Videoconferencing allows face-to-face meetings, providing not only a friendly interaction, also, more psychological support for elderly or disabled people. In this case, the quality and integrity of the information transmitted is the major issue.

As a summary, the ADVANCED TELEASSISTANCE is focused on needs for independent living and that can significantly increase autonomy and reduce the need for institutionalisation of elderly people.