Technology adapted by a Sudbury firm that’s designed to enhance seniors’ safety is being studied over 12 weeks by Cambrian College nursing students. The goal is to reduce health-care costs and improve seniors’ lives and those of their caregivers.
Students will study the benefits of a system developed by Care Link Advantage, which includes door contacts, motion sensors, bed sensors, medication monitors, remote-controlled video cameras and an online monitoring program.
Twenty seniors will participate in the study; the systems will be installed in the homes of 10 participants, while the other 10 will live in their homes without the technology.
Care Link president John Whitehead said the technology will help seniors stay in their homes longer because it enables caregivers to perform their roles with less stress and anxiety, which reduces caregiver burnout, a leading reason behind why many seniors move into a higher level of care.
The monitoring system was originally developed after Whitehead’s mother was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer disease.
“Now that we’ve refined the technology, we’ve been able to improve lives, save health-care costs and allow seniors to live in their own homes where the majority of them prefer to be,” he said in a news release.
The service is already fully funded in New Brunswick, Alberta has completed a pilot project and is studying funding models, and a pilot project is underway in British Columbia with the intention of funding the system. Whitehead hopes the results of the Cambrian study will result in funding of the service in Ontario.
The Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII) has provided $30,000 for the study, which is scheduled to start in January.