More than 28% of older people living in their own home fall each year. 44% of those falls happen in their own home.
Each year more than 3 million old people are treated with broken bones and head trauma in the US alone.
Old people living alone in their own home may fall, and they may not be able to report their fall to authorities or relatives. In some cases old people spend days waiting for anyone to notice, resulting in suffering, worsening of symptoms, or even death. Many people who fall, even if they’re not injured, become afraid of falling. This fear may cause a person to cut down on their everyday activities. When a person is less active, they become weaker and this increases their chances of falling.
Such a solution will be a strong enabler for Smart meter conversion. At the end it can save human lives.
The solution will be attractive to local authorities with a home care responsibility to serve elders. It will help them support a dignified living for the elders while being able to help them faster if they have an un-observed in-house accident.
The solution is attractive to adult children of elder people that are not in a home care program, allowing them to trust that if anything happens to their elders, the system will alert them and help them react as soon as possible.
When old people fall in their own home, they may not get help for hours or even days.
With smart water meters, it’s possible to generate enough data to understand when a person is in need of attention within hours instead of days.
AUDIENCE
Old people, home care professionals and relatives.
In a lot of countries, authorities have a responsibility to perform home care but may not notice a fall for many hours or even days. This does not serve their old well, and it gives poor press when the old are appear neglected/forgotten.
Relatives to old people feel a responsibility for their old even when they may not be able to live with their old, care for them or visit often. Still, they would like to know that their old are well, and be able to respond to crisis.
SOLUTIONS
Online platform utilize data from water meters to monitor consumption patterns and alert relatives and authorities when an anomality occurs.
Solutions like these are being tested in the US with very positive results for both the elders, home care and relatives.
LIMITATIONS
GDPR issues.
Getting data from the utility to the software asap.