Assisted living, in either disability or aged-care settings, is a sector ripe for technological enhancement. But it’s not as straightforward as one might think. Anna Hayes finds out more.

Everyday life is full of everyday tasks and processes. Some of these have changed dramatically over the last number of decades due to technological advances.

Instead of reaching for a phone or hammering my fist on one of those sadistic ringing alarm clocks, I now tell the smart speaker, quietly, to ‘stop’ (or snooze five times but who’s counting). Instead of flicking a switch to turn on the light, the smart assistant does it. Instead of tuning in a kitchen radio in the hope of catching traffic updates I, again, ask the smart speaker.

Others boil kettles from the shower, open the garage door while drying their hair, maybe start their car while grabbing coffee, order milk because they don’t like black coffee, and secure the house simply by walking out of it.

These are all routine, everyday things that we can do without technology but we don’t because, well at least in my mind, it’s cooler this way.

But what if those everyday things that we take for granted, to the extent where we simplify their operation, were beyond your ability? If you couldn’t hear that alarm, or reach that kettle, or operate a simple lock and key?

Two sectors live this reality – those seeking assisted living solutions in aged care and disability sectors.

So what’s stopping people from installing smart lights or locks, a smart-speaker alarm clock, or any other such device? Well, quite simply, the solution is not that simple.

Matt Manalis from the BMR Group has had an interest in the aged care and disability sectors for quite a while after a chance encounter with a disability company selling assistive technology such as wheelchairs.

They had contacted BMR Group to ask about lighting control for a client.

“This was seven years ago, so smart phones were just coming into their own. I said we could do that. And then we started talking a bit more and speaking with some occupational therapists (OT) about other issues and I thought there might be something here.”

What followed was a period of research, whereby Matt travelled to meet with state-based disability information providers to see what kind of technology was available to people. Those roles have since been defunded by the government but Matt had garnered some vital feedback and insight as to how the sector worked.

When the NDIA came along, it made the process easier as there were guidelines and a cost basis for such projects, as well as much needed funding.

That said, it can still be a slow process.

“From the moment we’d meet the OT and client, to the time we’d actually install anything, could be up to eight months. The quickest we’ve done it is in about four months. To put that in context, a private project gets up and running within weeks of meeting a client.”

As a result, certain commodities and aspects of the jobs have to be re-quoted due to the passage of time and this, Matt says, was quite challenging during the pandemic shutdowns.

“We’re not at a point where this is a dedicated business. We have the actual business in Livigy, but we don’t have a dedicated team because we don’t have the work coming in. We probably do about 20 projects a year for disability. In the next 12 months, we’ve got about 300 projects. But that’s all SDA housing so it’s developers building houses that are ready for disability, rather than building for a disabled person.”

While aged care and disability are considered under the same umbrella in terms of company approaches, Matt says that they are two very different markets and aged care suffers the same main issue as disability – funding.

A recent Royal Commission report has delved into the issue of aged care facilities in Australia, with some interesting recommendations to change the model of aged care, including the provision of assistive technology.

Matt says that the development and use of technology in this area is well behind other industries, and in the report, penned by Commissioner Lynelle Briggs, it is recommended that the Australian government implements a way to introduce technology to the aging population that helps to promote safe, independent living at home.

Further, it states that the Certificate III in Aged Care needs to include education on the use of technology and how it can be used to improve the quality of life and wellbeing.

Matt feels that Commissioner Briggs has highlighted the severe lack of care for an aging population, going so far as to suggest that the full extent of the problem could scarcely be understood due to how widespread the issue is, and how bad the care is.

He adds: “Our industry is in a unique position that we have the technology and the knowledge to help the aged care industry in lots of different ways. We will see this as a huge growth area now, knowing that the current aging population will be staying in their homes for longer than any other generation.”

He says they will start to see funding open up, as it did in the case of the disability sector, but he expected it would take 18 to 24 months for this to happen.

Matt says that pre-COVID, they would have expected that money would have been siphoned into the building of nursing homes but, given the results of the report and the handling of the pandemic in nursing homes, he feels that there may be more of a push towards keeping people in their own homes, despite the impact that will have on the housing market.

Aged care, he says, is a simpler process with the main focuses being on safety and automated lighting.

“When we first started looking at these sectors, we came up with a concept for a technology package that would help monitor and care for people, called AIM. That concept was that we could, using sensors throughout a person’s home or aged care facility or wherever it might be, build a profile of a person. It would track things live average sleep, time spent in the bathroom, hours of TV watched, what temperature they liked the room, etc.”

Taking that data, they could then use machine learning to determine when the person was getting sick based on the differentiation from the usual practice, and issue alerts to necessary caregivers based on that.

As part of that AIM platform, BMR teamed up with the University of Queensland to design a fridge monitor that would, again, track usage and alert the proper point of contact if routines changed without explanation.

“But nobody’s been able to take that up because the funding is not available. Unfortunately, people just don’t want to put their trust in technology just yet.”

Aged care is a relatively simple area to operate in, if funding was available, but disability technology is far more complex where the focus needs to be more on giving someone the chance to live as normal a life as possible in their own space with people of their own age, rather than going into residential care.

“The Summerhouse is probably most advanced in terms of the product that goes in. You’ll have full rollout of lighting control, access control, automated doors, speakers in the ceiling, a number of control options including wall panel, iPad or voice.”

Matt adds that they completed a job for a gentleman in WA who had lost the use of his hands. Installing voice control allowed him to control his TV, front door, bidet, and air conditioning.

“He went from having a carer 23 hours per day to needing them for just two hours per day. There’s huge satisfaction for us in doing those kinds of projects. We’ve invested a lot of time and money into research and development to ensure that we’re at the cutting edge of the technology.”

Matt says there are a number of considerations to be mindful of when undertaking projects in either of these areas, particularly in the disability sector.

“From the very beginning, when we set out to do this, we decided that we wouldn’t engage a client without an occupational therapist. We’re not medical professionals, we don’t understand the disabilities and we don’t understand if the client’s condition will get worse or change over time.”

The OT, he says, can assist them in terms of explaining whether the client will have the use of their hands, whether eye-gaze technology is required, if the person will be able to use controls or project their voice loud enough for voice control, etc.

“A lot of the time people come in, especially families, and say that they want this and that. And we’re like ‘well, that’s great and it’d be awesome, but actually they can’t use it.’ We don’t want to give technology to people that’s going to make life harder for them. So heaps of consideration is given to the actual environmental control and how the person will interact with the system. The technology is the same as standard residential devices; it’s just about how they access it.”

In New Zealand too, price and subsidisation has been a big factor in what kind of technology has been available to people dealing with disability.

Brendon Reid, founding director of Automation Associates Limited in Auckland, has worked in this space for many years but says that the cost of the technology severely limited the amount of uptake on it until recent times when such costs have become more manageable.

“Fifteen years ago, well before iPads and Siri, I designed a system where we mounted a laptop to a wheelchair with software called Dragon Naturally Speaking running on it. You could talk to the laptop and it would translate commands to a Vantage system, wirelessly from the wheelchair. It was a $15,000 job. Now, I can do that on an Android phone for $200. It’s so much more accessible to our clients now.”

Other projects Brendon delivered were a vibrating pendant for an elderly lady who’d had a stroke but whose husband, who was partially deaf, still needed to be out on the farm; as well as a camera system for a woman in a wheelchair whose husband had passed away and she wanted to be able to see who was at the door and all over her 20-acre property.

The other plus point in New Zealand is the presence of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) which supports people who had accidents and need assistance.

“There is strong support for assistive technology, specifically things like automated doors, access control, security, the kind of things that help people get in and out of their house,” Brendon says.

“Enquiries for assistive technology are on the increase and the government is doing a great job of making it more available.”

Brendon agrees that the planning stages of any such project is crucial to ensure both the technology and deployment are the best possible fit for someone, who may not be as able as a typical custom installation client, to engage with.

“You’ve got to talk to the client a lot about what they can and can’t do; what their hopes, fears and worries are; and you’ve got to keep government funded work contractually delineated from anything outside the funded scope. Compliance is also a big thing; you have to make sure the systems you’re specifying are fit for purpose.”

“As with all clients, it’s a case of listening carefully, asking the right questions, and understanding the parameters you are working with especially as pertains to their situation and what that indicates in terms of control system strategy.”