Howz and Sheffield City Council help keep elderly people safe and well at home with remote behavioural monitoring

Howz have partnered with Sheffield City Council to participate in the test of Connected Care to assess a new model of service delivery in the area.

Together, Howz and Sheffield City Council are supporting early discharge from hospital where people are medically fit and have capacity, specifically targeting Dementia and Frailty. We are monitoring people at higher risk through passive sensors to gather data for care insight, alerts, and reporting.

Howz technology is installed at discharge in Sheffield and provided short term in people’s homes alongside step-down care pathways. It is being used to demonstrate how well someone is coping at home after leaving hospital with information being shared with carers and families for objective decision making.

The Howz team are collaborating and interfacing with inhouse reablement services, hospital teams and external care agencies, social care teams and installation providers. We are also supporting families and increasing their engagement with loved ones by providing insight through the Howz app.

If a user meets the right profile for Howz, they are offered the service free of charge during a 6-week period. If the user agrees, they are referred to Howz who make contact to make sure everyone fully understands the service they will be receiving.

Once a user is comfortable with the service, technology installation is managed by Sheffield’s local partner City Wide Care Alarms. At the end of the pathway, City Wide collects and cleans the sensors which are then reused for future users.

Once the sensors are installed, users can nominate people to share information with in order to bring loved ones closer to how they are getting on at home.

Howz and Sheffield City Council have clear objectives and expected outcomes for this project.

• Identification of patterns & changes that increase risk of an adverse event

• Objective evidence to support care planning decisions Reduction in care package - size or timescale of package Identification of key risk factors affecting discharge

• Reduction in bed days where medically fit for discharge

• Population level understanding of behaviours post-discharge

These outcomes will ultimately feed into Sheffield City Council’s goal to support older people to stay safe, well and independent in a place of their choosing for longer.

For more information please contact the Howz team on info@howz.com or 0203 8686850