Sits on panic alarm

Hi CB,

Many thanks for responding. First, may I say that I didn't mean my post to come across negatively about you or your council. Of course no-one expects you to be up to date on everything that's available and it is great that you are aware that you are not. What is worrying is the workers who are out of date but who think they know it all.

Telecare Aware has a wide industry readership and they rarely get spontaneous and thoughtful comments from social workers or users, so I really welcomed your blog post. However, to amplify my comments a little, many Telecare Aware readers have been frustrated for years on two fronts in particular:

1) The perpetuation of the equation of 'telecare' with pendant alarms, when it has been known within the industry that many people fail to have their pendants with them when they need it - hence my picking up on the reference to sitting on them! I was pleased to see that you pointed out that there is a much wider range of devices. (See the post 'Britain's Got Pendants' for discussion on this matter.)

2) However much a social worker or other council employee intends to be consultative and user-centred when they visit someone at home, the reality is that people see them as authority figures. So, social worker thinks... "you need some telecare here"... it comes out as... "The council can provide you with a pendant alarm"... and is interpreted as... "I MUST have a pendant alarm from the council" when, in fact, other technology may be much more appropriate.

I was pleased to hear that you work for a council with a good telecare service that can make a proper assessment of a person's needs. I hear too many examples of councils that just install a 'standard package' of pendant, fall detector, smoke alarm and flood or movement detectors and think they have done some good for the client, when perhaps what they have actually provided is false reassurance because the pendant isn't to hand when needed; the fall detector produces false positives so it isn't worn; and the flood detector only works when water is already spilling over the floor.