Prompting devices are available that play a short pre-recorded message when they sense movement. For example, you could place one near your front door, so that when you approached the door it would automatically remind you: 'Put your safety chain on before you open your door to a caller' or 'Don't forget to take your keys when you go out'. Thus these devices can provide a useful prompt if you are experiencing difficulty with your memory. However, the maximum message length is quite short; 10-20 seconds on most models. Familiarity with an environment contributes towards a person feeling secure and confident. However, over a period of time people often accumulate a lot of clutter that can increase risk. By simplifying and organising your belongings, the home can become a much easier place to live independently. For a start keep regularly used items close to hand and remove items that are no longer used. Keep essential things where they can be seen to act as a visual prompt – for example medication and house keys. Basic tips include: These will automatically sound an alarm in your home and send an alarm call to your monitoring centre if it detects smoke. The monitoring centre can then alert the fire brigade. These alarms may be appropriate if you would find it difficult to get out of your home promptly, or might not remember what the smoke alarm was for. Many individuals prefer to use gas ovens, and especially gas hobs to electric hobs. However, problems include:

A daily timetable written out by a carer or relative can help by giving structure to the day. It could include, for example, visiting times for carers, meal times, and the time and channel for favourite TV programmes. It could be written on a white board, wiped off and replaced each day. If you fail to return any VAT exemption forms to us we WILL charge your card for the outstanding VAT. Organise your medications and vitamins for the week ahead, and never miss a dose with Safe and Sound Health’s weekly pill organiser and pillbox. Safe and Sound Health’s four-times daily pill organiser helps you to safely store and organise a week’s worth of medication and vitamins.

Managing multiple medications without getting in a muddle

Safe and Sound Health’s extra-large braille 7-day pillbox has seven large compartments for each day of the week and with braille text for the visually impaired. Each compartment has a day of the week printed in large on the lid, helping you to organise which vitamins and medications you need to take every day. Personal locators are portable products designed to be carried by you when you go out. They enable authorised individuals, such as relatives or carers, to find out your location by logging onto the internet from a computer or smartphone. Most work via GPS (a satellite based global positioning system) and will allow individuals you have authorised to find your location (if you are carrying the device) to approximately 10 metres. They may not be able to find you if you are indoors unless they also contain GSM mobile phone technology.

As with smoke and heat alarms, carbon monoxide alarms are readily available on the high street. The ones we list have non-standard features such as integration with strobe or vibration systems for individuals who are deaf or have hearing loss. Telecare uses technology in the home to monitor and support individuals remotely. This might be a fall alarm, a sensor that monitors the home environment, such as a gas detector, or a personal locator for those for whom disorientation is a problem. They are connected to a central monitoring centre, or a trusted individual, who can respond when needed. Local authorities usually partner with a specialist telecare company to provide a service in their area. Sometimes it is free, sometimes there is an initial cost and/or a weekly charge. Local authorities may meet the cost if you would find this difficult Safe and Sound Health’s twice-daily pill organiser has a separate compartment for morning and evening medication. Our 7-day PillBox has been designed to make it easier for you to organise the medication and vitamins you need to take each day, and at different times of the day. The push-button opening on our twice-daily weekly pillbox makes opening and closing the pillbox easier, without having to fiddle around with difficult catches. Tablets can be transferred into a pill or dosette box, a compartmentalised box marked with dosage times. Boxes have a flip lid or a sliding lid that should be easier to open than a pill bottle. The empty compartment provides a reminder that the dose has been taken.

That technological solutions may be installed without fully involving or obtaining the informed consent of the individual/s involved. This can be particularly relevant when the equipment is used to support individuals with conditions such as dementia. Gas alarms can also be linked to telecare alarm systems. These may be appropriate for individuals who live on their own and may not remember what the gas alarm is for if it goes off. A timer can be used to remind a person of the required cooking time. Some are mechanical, some digital. A few are a combination of the two. A mechanical timer, which might be more familiar and easier for older people to use, stops when the spring has wound down. An electronic timer might be more difficult to set but may sound for longer, or stop and then sound again after a short interval. Some also provide a visual cue of the time left.

Systems may be mains or battery operated and either connected by a wire or wireless. Some only allow one-way communication, others are two-way, allowing full conversation. Some have a handset which must be used when speaking through the system, others have a hands-free facility. This may allow the unit to transmit messages once speech is sensed. If no speech is sensed, the unit remains on receive mode. Sometimes it helps to do things as you go along, for example keep a ‘running’ shopping list so that as you finish items they are added to the list. That assistive technologies, including telecare, may be used to do tasks an individual is still able to do for themselves. This may contribute to them losing these skills sooner than would otherwise have been the case. Induction hobs may be worth considering as they often have a timer built in and they only heat the pan, which means you can touch the adjacent surface without burning yourself. Rather than the cooking surface heating up, a magnetic field is created between the pan base and an element underneath the glass top. However, the saucepans you use need to be induction compatible and induction hobs may not be suitable if you have a pacemaker fitted because of the powerful electromagnetic field.Be cautious of sales people who try to persuade you to buy equipment that may not meet your needs fully or is over-priced. Buying from a company that belongs to a trade association, such as the British Healthcare Trades Association, may give you some reassurance as members have signed up to a code of practice governing standards of customer service. To open and close the compartments of Safe and Sound Health’s Twice-Daily Push-Button 7-Day Pillbox: Pill organisers, also referred to as ‘dosette' type boxes, are filled by the user, or with assistance from family and carers. These have separate compartments for days of the week and/or times of day such as morning, afternoon and evening. Some use flashing lights, alarms or vibration to prompt you to take your medication.

Your personal motivations, perspective and preferences and your involvement in planning the introduction of equipment or changes to existing equipment. Do you understand what the telecare is supposed to do and the options available? Have you agreed that you would like to try the equipment/service? People who require support to live independently may well have to give access to their home to a range of different people involved in their care, while still feeling safe within their home. For example daily carers visiting to help with personal care and meal preparation or emergency responders to a telecare alarm activation. Problems may include: Telephones are available with an amplified ringer, visual flashing ringer and/or amplified speech which may help if you have hearing loss. Many phones are compatible with hearing aids. There are many reasons why you may feel the need to move and walk about more than usual. These may include a response to anxiety, to relieve pain or discomfort or becoming confused about where you are. This may result in you walking from an area of relatively low risk to an area of high risk, possibly getting lost or disorientated, especially at night. There may be safety risks associated with going into certain areas of your home alone, particularly if you experience difficulty when walking such as limited balance, for example out of the bedroom onto the landing where there is a risk of falling down the stairs.

Pill organiser boxes

Safe and Sound Health’s Twice-Daily Push-button Weekly Pillbox comes with a plastic storage tray that holds the removable AM and PM compartments. Each of the daily medication compartments has the day of the week printed on the lid with either AM or PM for storing the medication or vitamins you need throughout the day. The days of the week are printed in both large text and braille for the visually impaired Look at the layout of furniture – you may be able to create a safer space by rearranging or reducing the furniture in a room; Whether you need a pill organiser that shows you the week ahead or the full month, you can find the right product with Complete Care Shop. We have a range of pill organiser boxes with a full week view as well as a full month. Carefully lay out each day’s medication, whether for yourself or someone else and ensure all tablets are taken when they should be. Ideal for the elderly There are no uniform 'answers', 'rights' or 'wrongs'. However, it may help to consider the following issues. You can use these points to shape your discussion with the providing company or at an equipment demonstration centre.