'Makes you more relaxed': Technology letting B.C. seniors continue living at home

A Victoria pilot program using technology to help seniors age with dignity in their homes is getting promising feedback three months into the trial.

“It’s not just to put technologies into someone’s house – they’ve picked the right technologies,” says Long-Term Care at Home participant Glenn Maxwell. “It just makes you more relaxed.”

The year-long trial is a virtual service that brings some of the supports people find in long-term care facilities to their house – such as technology for medication administration assistance and infrared sensor monitoring systems that can alert emergency contacts or 911 in the event of falls.

“We currently have 16 clients on the program and they’ve seamlessly now adapted to all the technologies,” says Derrick Bernardo, LTC at Home’s executive lead and Broadmead Care’s president and CEO. “We’ve done a bit of a qualitative survey and asked how the clients how they’re doing and all of them have put their thumbs up to keep going.”

The Office of the Seniors Advocate says most seniors tell staff they want to “age in place” in the community where they live.

B.C.’s seniors advocate says this program is a step in that direction and that it helps build inclusive communities.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion and belongingness means that aging is part of that community,” says Dan Levitt. “So the key thing right now is to focus on the social supports that are available so not only are we extending independence and extending healthy aging, but we’re also extending social health.”

GLENN'S STORY

Glenn Maxwell is certain the pilot is helping him continue living in his Victoria home.

The former school teacher and grandfather was diagnosed with profound hearing loss 37 years ago. In recent years, the condition has made him prone to falling.

“The big thing about falling is the fear of lying there for hours and nobody comes to check on you. That creates an awful lot of anxiety in people and fear,” says Maxwell.

He says he’s suffered falls toward his window, into the carpet, and one frightening instance where he went backward toward his TV, which partially landed on his back. Maxwell says it was a pivotal incident that had him thinking about long-term care – and then he heard about Long-Term Care at Home and was able to enroll as a participant.

“A number of my friends that I’ve known for years now, they’ve commented on how much I’ve changed over the last couple of months – (on) my willingness to do things that I had stopped doing altogether,” says Maxwell.

A monitoring system called CHIRP has been installed in his home – which uses infrared sensors to pick up on his movements. If he goes below a certain line, the software can call his emergency contact or 911 presuming he’s fallen.

There’s also a machine that dispenses his medication, which includes a button to check for any potential missed doses.

The senior says he also enjoys the artificial intelligence devices, such as Alexa, that help him dictate when he wants to turn lights on or off and a robotic vacuum to assist with chores.

“For me that takes a lot of pressure off the care home system because it frees up beds and rooms in the system for other people who need them,” he says.

Broadmead Care’s CEO says participants have been enrolled from its adult day program, veteran’s health centre, and people in the community who’ve asked to participate.

“The vision is that this would be scaled and expanded to the entire province so that we can address the issues of our long-term care waitlist,” says Bernardo.

According to a news release issued by the Ministry of Health in July, the program is funded through the Canada-British Columbia Aging with Dignity Agreement. KinVillage in Delta also has 11 seniors enrolled.