Andrew Conroy: Contact Centre Manager at Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust
‘Technology provides flexibility, choice and is a great way to support not replace direct care and can be a gradual and safe way to introduce the idea of care services to possibly resistant customers.’
Healthcare Voices On Smart Technology Opportunities interview series continue with Andrew Conroy, who is a contact centre manager at Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust. With his extensive experience in the homecare industry, Andrew shares how technology has been changing it and what are the obstacles.
Technology is affecting every aspect of our lives, but how has it changed the home care industry in the past years?
The COVID 19 pandemic has been a catalyst for change in the delivery of home care in a way that other drivers haven’t been. The traditional direct (face to face) delivery model for home care cannot now be the only method by which care services are available. Either in the avoidance of risk (COVID transmission), a move to self-care or the involvement of informal carers (family and friends), care benefits from involving less formal options. Through the use of technology, we are now better able to move towards prevention, rather than simply responding to a need and through the use of some technologies provide unobtrusive, easy to use and easy to maintain forms of technology.
Which tech adoptions would you name as the most important in social care so far?
As social care adoption of assistive technology has been spotty at best to date, all tech adoption is important. I’ll preface this by saying that in 2021 and beyond, technology has to be digital, as analogue forms of this technology are becoming increasingly unreliable over an ALL_IP telecoms network. If someone is procuring technology with a 5-7 year life expectancy, why would someone procure analogue technology which limits this to 3-4 years at most.
Technology in a home care setting has to be useful, usable and desirable. The effectiveness of technology is severely limited if it’s tucked away in a draw and doesn’t support everyday living for the people it serves. Any form of technology that fulfils any/all of this brief is important. That’s why we at Astraline prefer technology that’s plug and play, requires limited engagement form the customer and remains reliable.
If you can couple this with technology that supports prevention, ideally coupled with a means to re-actively summon help if required, you get the best of both worlds.
Finally, if your chosen technology is accessible on a smart device (phone or tablet) by a customer’s family and friends and provides clear data to provide reassurance then even better.
Is domiciliary care a tech-friendly space in general? Why or why not?
From my experience - no.
Domiciliary care continues to operate on the basis of direct face-face care and while this remains really valuable, not only to keep people safe and secure in their own home but also to ensure that customers maintain human contact, often it’s the only solution available. Domiciliary Care can’t provide support around the clock in many cases as it isn’t always affordable and can limit the freedom, privacy and independence of the people it cares for.
Technology provides flexibility, choice and is a great way to support not replace direct care and can be a gradual and safe way to introduce the idea of care services to possibly resistant customers.
Apart from the pandemic, what have been the biggest challenges that you’ve faced during your career in social care?
I’ve worked in telecare and housing for 8 years and in that time I have seen technology come a long way. In my experience, our ability to scale the adoption of the use of technology, while keeping this accessible and affordable has been the greatest challenge. Supported People funding was being withdrawn when I started in the industry and Housing Benefit as the main funding replacement is still limited in what it can cover. Unless the technology is woven into the fabric of a building it still doesn’t attract HB which severely limits our ability to innovate and make the best dispersed technology available in the market accessible to many of our customers.
Adoption is always one of the greatest challenges when trying to introduce technology. Ideally, technology should be designed to overcome real-world challenges faced by our customers, enabling them to live their best life. Both from an affordability perspective and because the market has done little to expand its reach until the last couple of years the market for assistive technology has stagnated. More should be done to make assistive technology a mainstream product, akin to health and wellbeing devices, a part of everyday life rather than continuing to be an add-on service aimed at the already vulnerable.
Which of those challenges, technology could have helped you to solve, and how?
I don’t think technology has been the main barrier, I think that more needs to be done at a societal level to mainstream technology-enabled care.
What breakthrough technology do you think will be changing domiciliary care in the next 5-10 years?
Passive sensor technology that provides indications of the on-set of a problem, monitoring the person and the environment within their home and the wealth of data this makes available.
Technology combining multiple functions in a single device to maximise the benefits while keeping the solution simple and affordable.
The use of pre-existing technology to support complex needs (Alexa etc.)
mHealth and/or Telehealth which allows those with chronic conditions to access care remotely, alongside their routine rather than in conflict with it. So video GP consults, digital health monitoring, access to on-line services, pharmacy, community engagement, befriending etc.
What are your company’s biggest ambitions for home care going forward?
Simply to continue to promote the benefits of digital technology-enabled care as a valued addition to other forms of care. To promote the adoption of digital technology and to blur the lines between the currently disparate areas of health, housing and social care so we think of them as an integrated solution. To have customers and commissioners consider the home, the person and the more broadly digital confidence and engagement as inter-related.
Bonus: Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of technology within social care?
If commissioners of care could make a TEC First approach mandatory. At a time where real-world budgets for the provision of social care are at their lowest, it should become compulsory for TEC options to be the first area considered not the last when creating packages of care.
Andrew Conroy
Contact Centre Manager - Systems at Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust
