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The solution
RedGear provides a solution that allows staff to build a more accurate picture of the residents in their villages by gathering data based around the residents indoor environment.
Use cases
RGS Care have been working with a leading provider of independent living villages, The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, to assist care teams in delivering an evidence based person-centric level of care. The below use cases highlight a number of scenarios when the solution has proven particularly useful.
The work has centred around residents living with dementia, but has also been able to focus on a number of diverse issues such as; sleep patterns, nutritional intake, noise disturbances, thermal comfort and more.
UTI Detection
Concerned about a resident’s nutritional intake and hydration, RGS Care was installed to see if it could shed light on the weight loss of a patient.
The results showed that the resident was using the kitchen, but inconsistently, and care calls were set up around lunchtime to reinforce the importance of nutrition and hydration.
However, roughly a week into the solution being used, the number of bathroom visits increased significantly, both during the day and night. The care team suspected a UTI and a subsequent test proved positive, meaning the UTI was caught at an early stage before it worsened and a hospitable visit was prevented.
Inverted Sleep Pattern
A resident had declared an interest in taking part in village activities such as arts and crafts classes. However when the time came and the carer went to collect the resident to take them to the class, they complained of not wanting to go anymore because they were very tired. It was initially confusing to staff that the resident should declare an interest and then consistently refuse to attend classes when the time came.
After installing RGS Care, we were able to see after just a couple of days that the resident had an inverted sleep pattern. There would be very minimal movement in the apartment until approximately 8pm, at which time movement, sound and light levels would increase and stay consistently high throughout the night, only lowering at 10am, about the same time the carer was attempting to take the resident to classes.
The resident’s lack of motivation to partake in classes was understandable given their inverted sleep pattern, and the enabler was able to liaise with the care team to make alterations to medication and care call times, to make sure they were more optimally suited to the resident. The resident had been unable to vocalise their reason for not wanting to attend classes, and instead could only react by expressing their immediate desire (i.e. not wanting to attend).
RGS Care allowed us to see the reason behind this, and ultimately come up with a resolution to the benefit of the resident.
Behavioural Responses to Temperature
During care calls the care team were regularly finding a resident in some discomfort and either naked or wearing all her clothes at once. They initially took this to mean that her dementia symptoms were worsening and were manifesting themselves in the addition or removal of clothes.
However, after using RGS Care for a couple of days it was clear that the temperature in the apartment was extremely inconsistent and was fluctuating from 15-30ºC on a regular basis. It turned out that the resident only understood how to turn the heating off entirely, or on to full blast. This also fitted in with her idea of conserving energy - an idea that had stayed with her from before her dementia developed.
Every time she left the house or went to bed, she would also turn the heating off entirely. The result was an apartment that was either very hot or very cold, and manifested in the resident being very uncomfortable and reacting in the only way she knew how - adding or removing clothing. The resident was unable to explain that her appearance was a result of the constantly varying temperature - the apparently ‘odd’ behaviour was in fact just a simple reaction to thermal discomfort.
The care team were able to teach the resident how to make the most of the heating system to ensure that temperatures stayed constant, and with a few reminders, the resident was able to maintain a much more comfortable temperature in the apartment. With this, the addition and removal of clothing abruptly stopped.
Nutrition
After becoming concerned about a resident’s eating habits and nutritional intake, their carer installed RGS Care into a resident’s apartment.
The resident claimed to be regularly making breakfast and lunch, but the solution often showed no movement, light or sound in the kitchen at all on some mornings. The carer felt that the resident may have been confusing today with previous days or occasions when they had prepared food, and was not intentionally misleading care staff.
Equipped with the data of whether the resident had eaten or not, the care team was able to quickly resolve the issue by preparing the resident a meal on the mornings where no previous movement had been observed in the kitchen, reassuring the resident that they had not yet eaten that day. The second care call of the day then ensured the resident had eaten the food prepared for them.